The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association
Issue link: https://epubs.iltanet.org/i/163881
ask the expert Mike: The company has lost so much ground, and the recent products haven't been all that exciting. People have moved on in terms of smartphone and device adoption. All the other devices have security and management, which was the main selling point for BlackBerry for a decade or more. I think it will be very difficult for them to recover that market share. Rick: BlackBerry has done a good job with its BlackBerry 10 OS; however, it may be too little too late for them. Apple is killing BlackBerry in my firm and has been for some time. I think they'll hold on to an ever-decreasing piece of the mobile market, but I'm not convinced they'll be able to stage a comeback in the U.S. as a major mobile device platform again unless Apple and Android really stumble. With large government agencies now dumping BlackBerry in favor of iPhones, BlackBerry's days might be numbered. Dean: Looking at some of the current market data from the second quarter, the Android operating system has the majority of the worldwide market share with 60 percent adoption, with iOS at 23 percent adoption. BlackBerry has only 6.4 percent of the global market, but it still dominates legal considerably. In fact, even though the Android OS is the most popular device overall, Apple and BlackBerry still seem to be used predominately in legal. That said, the BlackBerry market share is dropping (it's true in my firm), yet I think there's still a niche for BlackBerry for those who prefer a physical keyboard. What can people expect to change in legal communications technologies over the next year or so? Rick: This is a very exciting time to be an IT professional in the legal industry, as I see a several potential positive disruptions on the communications technology front coming during the next 12 to 18 months. I think we'll see a lot of activity in the unified communications space with the use of IM, chat rooms and enhanced desktop collaboration both inside the enterprise and externally. We'll see greater adoption and use of softphone technology and anytime, anywhere, any device videoconferencing. Microsoft has been positioning itself over the past two years to compete head-to-head with Cisco in the IP telephony space. I see that competition heating up in a big way. Enterprise search technology will continue to mature and gain great adoption in legal as a way to better leverage the massive amounts of data law firms store and maintain. As our data storage costs continue to grow year over year, this is one technology that may allow us to get greater return on our data storage investments and add greater value to the business. I also see enterprise social media as another potentially huge disruptive technology in legal. It's all about getting attorneys connected to people and obtaining information better, faster and more effectively than ever before. With the younger generation 108 Peer to Peer of attorneys now advancing their careers, they're gaining greater influence as it relates to driving IT strategy and leveraging new technology to better serve their clients and the business's bottom line. It's not too much of a stretch to think that half-duplex email communication could be displaced from its number one spot as the most common way we all communicate by the more contextual communication experience of social media. Others have predicted this the past couple of years, but I believe conditions are right for this to actually come to fruition during the next 12 to 18 months. Dean: In the near future, I see the continuing evolution toward a menu of device choices because, as we learned from earlier market experiences like the Model T Ford that just came in black, no matter how good and easy Apple devices are to use, choice wins in the marketplace. We'll continue to see notebooks being supplanted by tablets and mobile devices with their lighter weight and longer battery life. Along with that, because these mobile devices have some limitations in terms of what and how much they can store, cloud-based storage will continue to gain traction, despite concerns with security and privacy. Donald: I think we need to move from BYOD to TYOD — take your own device. What I mean is that all of us, those practicing law and those responsible for providing technology, need to rethink how we support what is an obvious commingling of personal and business. The first step is to address some questions: • Are we going to support a commingling of personal and business? • Are we going to allow business information to be on personal devices? • And/or are we going to allow personal information to be stored on firm-owned devices that can be used outside the office? We might start to see a very different model in the future. We can do what Wall Street does and say you get two devices. You can have whatever you want for personal use, and here's your business device. If you don't like it, too bad. I don't know if law firms are going to be able to go there, but we may have to get to a point where, if a lawyer doesn't want to carry two devices, they are allowed to use a business device for personal reasons, but they are never allowed to use a personal device for business reasons. Mike: I'm looking forward to a more federated approach with multiple vendors working together. Just as Microsoft is buying Skype and integrating its capability with Lync and working with other vendors like Cisco, TelePresence, Logitech and LifeSize, so a mobile user with only Web access can click on something and still see a shared screen or interact via webcam. The integration will be relatively seamless and offer complete functionality, in particular, screen-sharing applications around training and software demonstration. The future is full of possibilities.