The Blue Plate iPad Special

At least once in every other entrepreneurship class I've taught, students present an idea for automating their food ordering experience in sit-down restaurants. Their arguments are for making (1) wait time for a table more productive, (2) orders more accurate and personalized, (3) menus more flexible and changeable, and (4) inventory and billing more accurate. The start-up costs of implementing such a technology are usually the biggest roadblock to making this idea a reality. Now, the iPad's wide level of adoption has finally made this service possible. As this CNN news report shows, two owners of an Atlanta restaurant have become one of the first to use iPads for orders.

Interestingly, the wait staff seems to spend as much time explaining the iPad concept as they might have spent describing the night's special and taking the order. Plus, does it seem to you like the patrons seem to be awestruck by the iPad and slower in deciding what they want? I imagine that restaurants and customers will begin to use social media with the iPads for Groupons, reviews, and promotions - maybe even a surveillance video of their food being prepared! How can you shape and reshape this idea to create value for the customer?