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One of the iPad's more intriguing business uses is making presentations before a live audience. The device is portable and fun to use, and the swipe and pinch gestures can make for some dramatic presentations. Sadly, iPad presentations haven't lived up to their potential - especially for users of Microsoft PowerPoint. But the lastest version of Brainshark's free SlideShark app could help change that. 

Apple seems able to do no wrong. In its most recent fiscal quarter, the giant consumer electronics maker posted a 59% increase in sales and a whopping 94% rise in profits. Such stellar numbers disguise the possibility that Apple’s near future may not be so prosperous, particularly if it falters in China.

That Apple remains in first place in the tablet market comes as no surprise. IDC's latest research shows that in the first quarter of 2012, Amazon's once-hot Kindle Fire is struggling. According to IDC, Amazon's share dropped from nearly 17% of the tablet market to 4%, with fewer than 700,000 units sold compared to Apple's 11.8 million.

AT&T and Verizon Wireless, the nation’s two largest wireless carriers, intend to market the heck out of Microsoft Windows Phone to prevent Apple from gaining a stranglehold on the U.S. smartphone market. But the strategy has many pitfalls, including the fact that the carriers still can’t afford to live without the iPhone. Bottom line, their love-hate relationship with Apple isn’t ending any time soon.

Apple sold 35 million iPhones in the first quarter of 2012. Nine million of those were sold among the top three carriers in the United States; the U.S. market remains important to manufacturers because it is where the hype cycle for the world begins, and where the most marketing dollars are found. But when you do the math, the overseas market is where the true smartphone battle is now taking place. 

This week Apple and the major carriers are announcing their latest financial figures.  This quarter saw a slight decrease from last year but the numbers are still spectacular. Verizon and AT&T sold 7.5 million iPhones combined - 64.1% of all smartphones sold.  Smartphones in the U.S. have reached an inflection point where sales are not directly affected only by times of year or market saturation. What does this mean for the operators? In simple terms: more data plans.

It was dinner at a fancy restaurant in Boston. After the last sip of Scotch was polished off, the waiter came over with the check... and an iPad. It was to take a survey about the quality of service, but it just as easily could have been used to pay the bill.

Tablets, especially Apple's iPad, are increasingly finding homes in restaurants and local businesses. They are changing how businesses conduct transactions and receive customer feedback. In a data-driven world, Main Street retailers are on the verge of a significant evolution.

Since Research In Motion made BlackBerry synonymous with smartphones in the early aughts, the company has taken a pounding for mis-steps, delays, intentional blindness, equivocations and most tellingly, mediocre products.

Those brickbats have often been well-deserved, but RIM should also have earned some respect, if not love, for the important role it played in smartphone development and popularization - not to mention a string of iconic-at-the-time devices that significantly advanced the state of the art.

If you liken app stores to race horses, Apple is the biggest, baddest thoroughbred in town. Google Play is a fine specimen with some distinct qualities but has a lot of work to do in the practice yard before catching up. Everything else is an also-ran. Windows Phone has been growing rapidly, increasing from 40,000 apps in Nov. 2011 to 70,000 at the most recent count. Then there is BlackBerry App World. For all of Research In Motion's troubles, its app repository is tied with Windows Phone at 70,000, which includes 15,000 specifically designed for the BlackBerry PlayBook. There are no tablet apps in the Windows Phone Marketplace, mostly because there is no Windows tablet (well, one worth anything).

German BlackBerry blog BlogBerry.de sent us over an infographic (through its content promotion specialist BlueGrass Interactive) breaking down the "reality" of the native app stores. It quotes RIM VP of developer relations Alec Saunders as saying 13% of BlackBerry developers have made $100,000 or more off their apps. We have heard this song and dance before. Take a look at the infographic below and let us know in the comments what you think of the BlackBerry App World, its quality of apps and whether or not it is a wise business decision to build any apps for the BlackBerry platform these days.

James Pearce, head of mobile developer relations for Facebook, likes to point out that "you and your friends don't always have the same devices" or even use the same mobile platforms.

That's a problem for the company, as it has to support all the major platforms, from Apple iOS to Google Android and beyond - often putting it in the position of benefitting its competitors. But it's also a huge opportunity for Facebook itself to shape and dominate that common platform.