Peer to Peer Magazine

March 2011

The quarterly publication of the International Legal Technology Association

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E nticed by the glimmering prospect of exchanging your burly laptop for a sleek new tablet that promises mobile computing nirvana? Well, before you do, let’s peek under that shiny, highly reflective glass to see if promise and reality meet. The Tablet Big Bang It’s hard to believe, but it’s been less than a year since tablet computers were pretty much confined to a computing niche reserved for the medical and industrial markets and, of course, early-adopters and gadget freaks. But then Apple introduced the iPad … and in the mere nine months since its launch in April 2010, the company sold more than 14.7 million, and more than 7.3 million in the final quarter of 2010. While the iPad may currently be the king of the mountain, it’s only the beginning. Gartner is projecting total tablet sales to reach 19.5 million in 2011. Other estimates range as high as 50 million, fueled by the release of iPad 2 and an estimated 100 Android-powered tablets due to hit the market this year. Forrester analyst Sara Rotman Epps estimates that by 2015, 82 million U.S. consumers will be using a tablet. Not only are tablets here to stay, it seems we’ve just experienced the initial spark on the fuse and can reliably reckon on an impending powder-keg blast. professional information technologist’s best tool for moving through a substantial pile of work. Productivity is lower for certain types of tasks: • Navigating a multitude of apps can be cumbersome • Typing takes more time • Multitasking is limited • There are no keyboard shortcuts • Continuous browser refreshing is a bother As our VP of R&D — a computer scientist with a decade of experience building Internet applications — said, “It’s a fantastic tool for consuming content, but not for producing it.” That explains why senior management has been quicker “By 2015, 82 million U.S. consumers will be using a tablet.” Tablets Invade the Legal Industry At this point, the evidence is anecdotal, but the adoption of the iPad by both the C-suite of corporations and senior partners in law firms has been unabashed. The tablets’ heady combination of status symbolism, mobile productivity and that indefinable “coolness factor” has been too much to resist for users. iPhones, MacBooks, and now iPads — until recently a rarity in the law firm setting — are increasingly becoming de rigueur. And it’s not just for e-mail, Web-surfing and entertainment; we are seeing partners who actually prefer to work on their iPads, and who are interested in reading depositions, reviewing documents and pleadings, and seeking ways to use their iPad to make presentations. Are Tablets Right for Everyone? For the past few months I’ve been bench-testing both an iPad running iOS4 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab running the Android OS. Yes, these are wonderful machines and a joy to use, but frankly, I’m not planning to retire my MacBook Air anytime soon. Why? In my view, the tablet is not a to adopt tablets than other firm staff; these are people who spend the bulk of their time reviewing reports, spreadsheets and presentations, not necessarily producing them. Given this context for tablet use, which one is right for you? Let’s look at the two leading tablet platforms available on the market today: the Apple’s iOS4 on the iPad and Google’s Android on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. (Research in Motion and Microsoft should be bringing their own tablets to market with their own OS’s in the near future.) IT Perspectives and Security As a Cloud-based provider of litigation products, security is a paramount concern for us. One of the major reasons we put our products into the Cloud was to limit, if not eliminate, security vulnerabilities presented by data stored on a (easily stolen and often left at airport security) laptop. Tablet computing presents a dramatic shift in the responsibilities of IT departments to provision and manage mobile devices, but it’s clear that IT professionals are up to the challenge. At the end of 2010, reports said that 80 companies on the Fortune 100 list were testing or deploying iPads. Security and IT provisioning are critical components in the selection of a tablet platform, but there is no lack of options. We are currently testing AirWatch, BoxTone, Good Technology, MobileIron, and Zenprise — to name a few. The Hardware I won’t spend time discussing tablet “specs,” as you can find comparison charts galore on the Web. Suffice it to say, Peer to Peer the quarterly magazine of ILTA 47

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