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Monday, February 25, 2013

One in 4 Canadians are Tablet Owners

The iPad is still the king of all tablets but other choices are catching market share fast. A study by Media Technology Monitor estimates that 26% of Canadians last fall had a tablet. Apple iPad took 66% market share, while 15% had a Blackberry Playbook or Google Android device. iPad owners were the most enthusiastic about their device obviously due to the solid iTunes interface. Tablets are classified as being a mobile device but 82% of respondents used it at home.

I queried my inner circle of contacts and found that iPad ownership outnumbered other brand devices. Many used it at home in place of a second laptop and all found the tablet highly useful for travel and surfing at Starbucks. A few of my geek friends had several tablets with the second tablet the Blackberry Playbook. Not surprising but many parents have purchased iPads for their children.

Lets see what the numbers look like later in 2013 to see how much market share the other tablets can take away from Apple.

My most used apps are Goodreader, Chrome browser, email and the ShoreTel Mobility client.

What makes the ShoreTel Mobility client so great is that I have my iPad enabled for enterprise voice. With our head office in sunny California, it is not uncommon to get calls around 730-800pm EST (they are 3 hours behind) from coworkers and I answer those from the comfort of my couch on my iPad (its now become my cordless telephone for my office telephone) using my in-house wifi. ShoreTel also supports the android. As corporations embody the BYOD mantra the enterprise voice enabled tablet is becoming a serious business productivity tool.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

New PSTN Area Codes being Added to Canada

Obviously the expansion and increase in cellular, Tablets and SIP numbers requires more telephone numbers and as a result the following expansion is being planned:

Manitoba added the 431 area code as an overlay to the 204 region Nov 3, 2102

Quebec added the 873 area code as an overlay to the 819 region Sept 15, 2012

Ontario added the 249 area code as an overlay to the 705 region March 2011

Ontario will add 365 area code as an overlay to 905/289 starting March 25, 2013

Ontario will add 437 area code as an overlay to 416/647 starting March 25, 2013



The North American Numbering Plan is further explained at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_Numbering_Plan

Canadians can go look at http://www.cnac.ca/npa_codes/NPA_History.pdf and check out the Canadian Numbering Administrator website