The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/11430
A Lofty View from the Year 2020 despite the changes in technology, most firms continue to have significant internal IT staffs, but the focus of their work has shifted more toward user support, custom application development and custom application support. The End of the PC Era and the Beginning of the Era of Mobility It really wasn’t all that long ago that desktop computers were ubiquitous and laptops were the only type of portable computing devices available. It was a comfortable world for technology administrators and executives; we provided the hardware and secured the computing environment with a variety of tools, largely around a Microsoft computing platform. Yet, as more and more people who had grown up with technology entered the workforce, we faced greater pressure to be more flexible with our selection of computing platforms. Smartphones: It is not the least bit ironic that the two companies that broke the Microsoft software monopoly were Apple and Google. Apple of course had a long history battling Microsoft with its Macintosh computers, while Google was run by a CEO who previously ran Novell, a networking software company with a grand plan that Microsoft rolled over in the 1990s. The end of the PC era and the beginning of the era of mobility, however, really came with the launch of the iPhone. This was followed shortly thereafter by Android sales and ad revenue, books from declining sales, and network television from fewer viewers and advertising. The iPad provided an electronic platform for marketers, replacing decaying revenue streams with new ones. From a technology standpoint, consumers found that they could function quite well on a computer equivalent without a mouse and learned to love a touch-screen interface. The iPad was not on the market too long before “Interestingly enough, despite the changes in technology, most firms continue to have significant internal IT staffs, but the focus of their work has shifted more toward user support, custom application development and custom application support.” OS-based smartphones, both with platforms representing a move toward application and interface simplicity. Both devices popularized the concept of go-anywhere, do-anything, easy- to-install, inexpensive applications. For the end user, they didn’t require hours of technical support, and they installed themselves with the tap of a finger. Tablets: While these smartphones first presented the interface and user-friendly applications, it was not until Apple launched its first generation iPad, and Google launched its first tablet, that the whole concept began to take over the enterprise. The iPad was groundbreaking in many ways, and it came to market at the right time. A number of industries were really struggling with how to make money in the digital age: newspapers and magazines were struggling from declining Google released its own tablet, and like the iPad, it was a compellingly easy-to-use piece of hardware. The initial release of the Google tablet used its Android mobile phone software, and it offered similar functionality to that of the iPad, but in a more open environment. Google had some success with this project, but this first tablet was more driven by the consumer market than by business, as traditional business applications simply were not available for the Google tablet. It allowed Google to test versions of its suite of online tools on consumers, a more forgiving audience, and then use their feedback to improve future products targeted more toward the enterprise. A Web-Based World: Google’s launch of its first Web-based computer operating system, Chrome, took the simplicity and flexibility of the mobile phone operating systems and combined it with the simplicity and power of Google’s Web-based applications. Google’s second-generation tablet, refined from the lessons learned with the Android tablet, used this newer operating system. The combination of a touch-screen interface with easy-to-use applications that were available online or offline (the operating system provided lightweight copies of applications and documents available for offline use) was attractive to business professionals and to attorneys. Applications were easy to find and install, and eventually become modular, which has allowed developers to add unique capabilities to general applications without disturbing the core application itself. This has all played very well in a world where cost containment and efficiency are requirements. In addition, with the widespread availability of wireless broadband now available over very fast 5G networks, attorneys can work anywhere with full access to their data. Peripheral Devices: The changes in peripherals to support these new devices have also been notable. The launch of Google Cloud Print in 2011 set a standard for Peer to Peer the quarterly magazine of ILTA 73