Why not treat it as a business expense?
Marques Lyons, Xbox MVP, has put out an open letter to small businesses making a timely suggestion: buy an Xbox One. Heck, make it a business expense; there are many features built into the console – video conferencing, networking and the like – that will help your business grow. Like Skype? Xbox One does that, and allows for multi-person chatting. Need to store documents? Xbox One has the Sky Drive. Internet Explorer and Office Web Apps are at your fingertips, with the Xbox One. Plus there’s plenty of assistance for your presentation and Power Point needs. You won’t even need a clicker to navigate from page to page; Kinect does away with all that. Other, future apps could add further business functionality. Buy one for your business today! Or better yet, in November 2013, when it actually comes out.
If you’re wondering who Marques Lyons is, wonder no more. It’s an interesting pitch; certainly there are Xbone functions that a business could find useful. You have to wonder just how many businesses really want to buy into a $499 console for Skype and Power Point, or how many of the ones that need those services already have devices that provide them. Lyons himself seems to acknowledge this in the first paragraph of his open letter. “As the owner of a small business, you find great value in your computer and your phone,” he says. “Between the two of them you are prepped for presentations, up to date on your appointments and able to create documents with relative ease.”
And there’s the rub. If you’re a small business and you’re looking for tech that can really help you out, why look further than a smartphone and tablet? Skype, cloud storage, presentation software, web browsing; it’s all there, plus plenty more third party apps. Payroll management systems, point of sale apps, barcode readers, analytics apps, apps for keeping track of travel expenses, client databases, any flavour of accountancy and financial management package you care to name, and so on. Not only is it out there, and at pretty comparable prices, it’s more convenient simply because it’s mobile. You won’t be putting the Xbone in your pocket or bag any time soon.
Anything’s possible, but if Microsoft’s hoping for a significant pick up in small business purchases, it may be disappointed. We’ll know one way or the other after the Xbone’s November launch.
Source: Small Business Support column
Published: Jul 11, 2013 01:00 pm