SlideRocket, the online presentation company that seeks to break organizations out of the PowerPoint gridlock, today released its HTML5 mobile presentation players. I’ve spent lots of time talking with SlideRocket CEO Chuck Dietrich so appreciate what a big deal this actually is – you see one of my concerns around SlideRocket as a business has been their deep reliance upon Adobe Flash – given all the press given to Apple not supporting Flash on the iPad and iPhone, I worried that this was a real risk for SlideRocket.
Today sees a release that allows them, in one hit, to both play in the mobile arena and show the world that their ties to Adobe are not unbreakable. The SlideRocket mobile player includes integrated video playback, full 3-d transitions and all the builds and animations that users enjoy on the web version. SlideRocket are also timing this release with the release of a survey that found that around a quarter of business travellers frequently leave heir laptops at home and are beginning to rely on mobile devices for their business needs while on the road – by providing for presentations while mobile, SlideRocket gains an advantage over other offerings.
Interestingly enough, the survey found that 30% of respondents actually make sales presentations in a bar – while I can take or leave the metric itself, the reality is that sales professionals in particular are seeing their role become less constrained and are expected to be able to perform their role anywhere and anytime – mobile tools (witness the uptake of the BlackBerry over he past decade or so) are enabling them to achieve this.
While the survey can’t be regarded as a highly accurate statistical test, some of the findings are worth reading about:
- The majority of professionals (90%) deliver sales presentations outside of the office, with 45% presenting over a meal; 30% presenting over drinks at a bar and 13% presenting on an airplane.
- iPads rank second to laptops as the preferred presentation tool with projectors and bar napkins falling behind.
- 56% percent of professionals carry both a Smartphone/iPad and a laptop. *Neilson Company Survey, 2010
Whether this move means a general shift away from Flash for SlideRocket we’ll have to wait and see, but even looked at in isolation, it’s an important milestone for the company.
