One of the more significant product launches in the world of consumer electronics, the Apple iPad, is taking the world by a storm and establishing a whole new class of computer. “Magical”, “revolutionary” or, call it what you may, the Apple iPad provides value to all age groups. Apple describes its 9.7 inch tablet computing device as “The best way to experience the web, email, photos, and video. Hands down.”

I thought it was very interesting that in the line up to purchase the iPad there were several senior citizens. The touch screen and ability to change and enlarge type on screen of whatever you are reading online, including; novels, magazines, or newspapers is clearly a game changer and true sign that change has come to the world of the PC.

So what is the enterprise uptake concerning the iPad? Is it fit for business? According to AT&T there has been a surprising interest from the business community with one half of Fortune 100 companies using the device in some way. This includes companies like WellsFargo and Mercedes-Benz who believe that the iPad assists workers in being more productive. Email processing, approving shipping orders and even on the spot auto-finance are some of the activities being streamlined on the iPad by such users.

With over 3 million Apple iPads selling in just eighty days and line ups all over the world competitors like Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Cisco have put in place strategies to take advantage of the tablet craze. Cisco has just launched Cius aimed at the business customer. This tablet works on Android, has a camera (which the iPad does not) and is on open source for enhanced communication.

In turn Apple is planning the launch of its OS 4.0 this fall which will address some user concerns with the lack of multi-tasking.

So, if you are looking for something to do on a Friday night perhaps a trip to the App Store might be right to order? There are some cool games. Check out Air Hockey, Angry Birds (a funny kids game), and Cogs to name a few. This weekend I am in a card tourney with four imaginary friends (but don’t tell anyone), and then watching a movie. In short, the iPad can be described as a cool and fun consumer device designed for easily browsing the web, viewing videos, photos, mail and books and very rapidly becoming a great tool for business too.

With the global popularity of online communities such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as the growing passion for blogs and real-time conversations, customers have become very powerful in their ability to share their experiences. These social media platforms have turned customers into “influencers”, bringing word-of-mouth to a whole new level and making responding quickly to customer needs – and especially their dissatisfaction – a crucial key to any business’s success.

The objective of text analytics is to pool together – through linguistic, statistical and machine learning techniques – a structured analysis of information and word frequency distribution, in order to turn text into data to better understand the mindset and experience of customers.

Text mining goes beyond simple keyword searches. In the same spirit as the old adage, “knowledge is power”, text analytics essentially gives companies an edge by letting them know what customers are saying about their services and products. This allows a company to tap into cost savings, revenue drivers, and deliver greater profitability in all aspects of its operations.

“We have one customer that took 2 weeks with a 5 person team to manually sift through 10,000 comments. Using text analytics . . . we did the same thing in 1 day and were able to come up with the same conclusions they did and a few more. That’s a pretty dramatic display of the power of text analytics to save time by an order of magnitude, while still being sure you get the insights you need to head off issues before they become problems,” stated Sid Banerjee, chief executive officer of Virginia-based Clarabridge, recently about the efficiency of text analytics.

On June 15^th IBM announced to the press that they had agreed to purchase Coremetrics, a leader in web analytics software and advanced in the area of text analytics.

IBM understands that organizations are increasingly looking for ways to optimize their marketing processes and gain deeper insights into client demands in order to drive brand loyalty by executing more personalized customer interactions. However, companies are faced with an increasingly complex set of digital outlets to interact with customers, ranging from websites and mobile applications to e-mail and social media sites. By offering comprehensive solutions geared to unlock the value of unstructured content IBM is positioned to help its business customers respond quickly to marketplace changes to differentiate themselves for competitive advantage.

“Results from IBM’s 2010 CEO Study showed that 88 percent of CEOs will focus on getting closer to their customers in next five years, 82 percent of CEOs want to better understand customer needs and 85 percent of CEOs require more visibility into their businesses.”

With this understanding, it’s easy to see how important it is for businesses to listen to their customers. Text analytics is both a critical and powerful tool that provides businesses with a forward-thinking opportunity to not only manage customers’ experiences, but also predict their behaviour.

Text Analytics is a fascinating and emerging science in taking the ambiguity out of keywords by placing them in their contextual environment – perhaps even a silver bullet in unlocking our semantic web.