There's no doubt that the invention of e-readers has greatly impacted book sales. Here are some numbers to look at:

• 51% of e-reader owners increased their purchases of e-books in the past year. ¹
• 9% of consumers increased their purchases of hardcover books in the past year. ¹

Hikosaburo Yasuda says he knows a trend when he sees one and plans to buy Apple Inc.’s iPad to keep up with junior members in his computer club. Yasuda is 95.

“It’s important to always try new things, otherwise you get left behind,” Yasuda said. “All these books in just one place, and so many familiar, classic titles that I’ve never had a chance to read. I want to buy the iPad just for that.”

Any concerns regarding a cannibalistic impact of the iPad on Mac sales, were recently laid to rest by Apple’s Q3 2010 earnings call; the iPhone and the iPad, which run on iOS, led an impressive, best-ever, everything-but-the-iPod, sales quarter. For a closer look at who is buying two of Apple’s most popular devices, we turn to The Nielsen Company’s survey of more than 64,000 mobile subscribers, fielded April through June 2010.

How many of us have suffered through a PowerPoint sales presentation? You bring in a laptop, boot it up, hook it up to a projector and load the application. Maybe 5 minutes later you dim the lights and everyone sits around a table checking their email with their smart phones while you present.

Boring. And not very effective.

If people aren't engaged with you, chances are they aren't that interested in having a meaningful conversation.

Wells Fargo & Co. spent two years studying the iPhone before letting bankers use the device at work. Apple Inc.’s iPad, released in April, took just weeks to get cleared.

This time around, safeguards against security breaches are stronger from the start, according to Megan Minich, a senior vice president at the San Francisco-based bank. Her colleagues used two of the first shipment of 15 iPads to demonstrate financial products at an investors’ conference in May. More are on the way, Minich said.

Are you an Apple bull looking for even more ammunition to bolster your faith in the company? Barclays Capital has you covered. In a report today the research shop predicts that:

• Tablets computers, a category that didn’t really exist until this spring, will be here to stay;
• Apple (AAPL) is going to own most of that market for years to come;
• This is yet more bad news for Microsoft (MSFT) and its Windows franchise, as well as PC manufacturers like Dell, in particular.

Some of the initial hype over the iPad has died a bit and now it's time to dig in and start to analyze the real value this tool (and others like it) can bring to the small business table.

In addition to the practical content consumption functions and the obvious coolness factor of the iPad, sales folks and anyone who needs to present ideas to small groups should latch onto the iPad as a killer sales tool.

Unless you live in a cave with no broadband then you will have already caught some of the hype and excitement surrounding Apple’s new iPad product.

The importance of this product has to do with the way we experience e-books, videos, audios etc. A big advance is in the area of sales presentations. Not the type where you are presenting to a whole room of people, but more for the sales presentations where you are talking with an individual prospect and you want to show something visual.

Apple has reason to boast about its iPad sales. With 3,000,000 units in 80 days just think where this is going. After you've held an iPad you can quickly see why others are so enamored and that 3 million iPads is just the start.

Update to the iPad Sales Timeline, once again:

• April 3rd – 300,000 WiFi iPads sold on launch day
• April 8th – 450,000 iPads Sold total 5 days after launch, 3.5 Million iPad Apps and 600,000 iBooks downloaded
• April 10th – 500,000 iPads sold
• May 3rd – 1,000,000 iPads sold
• May 31st – 2,000,000 iPads sold
• June 21 – 3,000,000 iPads sold in 80 days

Give your communication and sales teams the advantage today by developing next generation, powerful apps and presentations for iPhone & iPad mobile devices. mobilepowwow.com is all about supporting your sales and marketing efforts with materials to engage and persuade audience members.