According to a recent Survey by IDG, iPad use is growing among IT pros.  In fact iPad use has seen huge growth in business in general.

What this means is that many of people you are trying to reach have iPads, or will be getting them shortly. 67% of Professionals in the US use their iPad at work.  According to the survey.

IT and business professionals use their iPads more intensively, across a wider range of scenarios. Fully 51% of IT decision-makers say they “always” use their iPad at work (and a further 40% say they sometimes use it at work). Out-of-home usage is even more intense, with 79% of IT decision-makers saying that they “always” use their iPads “on the move”.

It’s becoming an app-centric world and if you want to compete, you need to be able to reach people with apps.

How does this play in regards to which platform to develop in?

I read another interesting article yesterday and it talked about the importance of the app stores (Apple, Google, or Amazon) and the lack of app stores for HTML 5/JS mobile apps.  Some companies are trying to circumvent the app stores by deploying standards based mobile application.  The problem with it is not a technological one in terms of getting adoption for their app.  The problem is a business problem.  There is no centralized app store for Standards Based apps, so they are difficult to find.  The app stores have such tight integration into the host operating system that just finding those other apps, as good as they may be, becomes much harder.

So what’s The Rub

Businesses have decisions to make.The choice of platform depends on where your audience is, what devices they have, and how they use them.  These are decisions that need serious consideration as more and more businesses decide to move into the app world.  The iPad is certainly a great platform to deploy to.  It has wide acceptance with both consumers and business professionals.  Is it the best platform for any app? Not necessarily.  Again it depends on your target market, where they go, what they are doing, and what devices they are doing it with.