iPad app gives access to 6,ooo white papers

Dubai: Researchers and marketers looking for an easier way to sort through thousands of white papers have been given a new leg-up on business data gathering, says technology media company International Data Group.

A new iPad app from IDG Connect has been released through Apple iTunes to give users access to more than 6,000 business and internet technology white papers in PDF format.

Downloaded documents can be saved into users' personal bookshelves, said Kathyrn Cave, editor of IDG Connect International.

"This means that vendors' white paper content can now be searched, saved and read on the iPad Bookshelf," Cave told Gulf News from the UK. "Vendors also have the opportunity to sponsor an iZone. This is a branded area which features papers and videos."

Free access

Released this week, the new app was created by IDG Connect in association with Oracle and is free for the taking.

"The application is free to download and users can access as many papers as they want for free," Cave said. "All the user has to do is register once through a short registration form."

John O'Malley, CEO of IDG Connect, said: "Tablet technology is changing the way users access information.

"This in turn is having an impact on the way marketers publish and distribute their content.

"We hope this application will help give B2B marketers the chance to connect with a wider range of IT professionals and give readers the flexibility to locate business content whenever they need it."

The new iZone area, meanwhile, will include not only white papers but other forms of business content in different mediums such as videos. "Oracle has exclusive sponsorship for the iZone for three months," Cave said.

"This means Oracle videos are the only multi-media content available through the app. After three months, IDG Connect will have space for two more iZone sponsors. This is an exclusive opportunity and we will be drawing up a shortlist of suitable vendors."

The new app should also help marketers and professionals in the Middle East find actual white papers in a region that is lacking local relevant documents based upon an earlier survey by IDG Connect.

The company recently surveyed 3,217 IT professionals in 114 territories and found that white papers are weighted too heavily in favour of the North American IT industry.

Western biased data may not always be the best way for technology markets in other emerging regions to connect the dots in their own culturally and economically different regions.

"IT professionals outside North America say they want localised studies," suggests IDG Connect's survey released in late July. Cave said respondents in the Middle East "find white paper content useful or extremely useful."

The survey, however, discovered that 64 per cent of those same IT professionals in the region prefer to read local content and 67 per cent struggle to find that local content.