Can Apple's much-hyped iPhone impact on BlackBerry's position as the legal profession's gadget of choice? Alan Cohen assesses if Apple's consumer hit can make a breakthrough in the business market

Even in an uncertain world, we could always count on three things: death, taxes and the knowledge that nothing would ever pry a BlackBerry out of a lawyer's hand. Well, make that two things now. While the BlackBerry remains the gadget of choice for the profession, there is a new contender. The upstart's name – yes, we know, big surprise – is iPhone.

The hype

Few products have been as talked about, written about or, frankly, well-marketed as Apple's iPhone. And as anyone who has tried one can attest, it is certainly a slick device: part phone, part iPod, part mobile web browser, all wrapped up with a groundbreaking interface that lets users pinch or flick their fingers to zoom in and out of documents, emails and web pages. But how does it fare in a law firm environment?

The first-generation iPhone was decidedly a consumer product, with gaping security holes and poor support for corporate email – two deal-breakers when it comes to business use. But with the release of its 2.0 software – along with the new iPhone 3G, capable of running over a faster mobile network – the device's corporate chops were improved. With more lawyers asking for iPhones, some firms began taking a serious look at the platform, and a few have embraced it.

At US firm Chapman and Cutler, more than half of the firm's lawyers – some 160 in all – now use iPhones instead of BlackBerry or Treo devices. (Chapman has long been one of the few firms to use Apple computers, switching to Macs in 1992.) Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal has "a couple of hundred" users, according to the firm's chief information officer, Andrew Jurczyk. Howrey has about 100 iPhone users.

The debate

None of these firms, however, has adopted the iPhone exclusively, instead offering it as an alternative for lawyers who want it. And not all lawyers do. "Some stayed with Treos because they can use them to connect their laptops to the internet, which is something Apple and AT&T [the iPhone's exclusive carrier in the US] don't allow," says Chapman and Cutler chief information officer Todd Nugent.

And that's really the rub: while the iPhone now offers many features that make it a viable option for business use – easy integration with Microsoft Exchange for BlackBerry-style 'push' email; remote wipe (a sort of self-destruct command that lets administrators erase the contents of any iPhone that has been left in a cab or airport lounge); secure access to law firm networks – it also has drawbacks that do not make it an option for everyone. There is no built-in keyboard a la BlackBerry; instead, users tap out messages using virtual keys displayed on the iPhone screen. Nor does Apple offer the option to use an external Bluetooth keyboard (Howrey loans out iPod Touch devices – essentially iPhones without the telephone function – so prospective users can see if the virtual keyboard is for them). "The touch-screen is never going to be the equivalent of physical keys," says Shane McGee, an iPhone user and counsel in Sonnenschein's information security and internet enforcement group.

Battery life – or lack thereof – is another frequent complaint about the iPhone. "We couldn't go one day without needing a charge," says David Gregson, chief information officer at Kilpatrick Stockton, one of Apple's own outside counsel. Kilpatrick recently concluded a six-device iPhone pilot programme and found the end result "mixed".

The biggest beef, however, is how the iPhone fares for heavy email use. "Coming from the BlackBerry world, you get used to the conveniences they have refined," says Gregson. "A BlackBerry is really an email device with a phone added on, where the iPhone is a phone with email added to it. You can't search through email or cut and paste like you can on a BlackBerry. You can only sync with your inbox, not with subfolders. You can't set priority when sending messages. Lawyers are going to be disappointed if they are real power users." Kilpatrick currently has no plans to deploy iPhones firmwide, although has recently given them to two partners in New York who work with Apple.

Foley Hoag came to a similar conclusion, but will support iPhones for any lawyer who wants to use one (currently, there are about 10). "Email does not come in as smoothly as it does on a BlackBerry," says Frank Bayley, the firm's director of information technology. "It's not as quick. If you send yourself a test message, you'll see that it takes [longer] to come through… [Our] hardcore people dealing with hundreds of emails a day are mostly sticking with BlackBerry."

But for some users, email is now just part of the mobile productivity equation, and for them, that shifts the balance in favour of the iPhone.

Beyond the obvious

Already, some of the early iPhone adopters are exploiting the 'beyond email' features of the device. At Sonnenschein, iPhone users can securely access the firm's network and – via Safari, the iPhone's browser – search and retrieve more than six million documents. "The nicest thing about the iPhone is that all the formatting, indenting and styles display on the screen," says Jurczyk. "[Apple] really nailed it on mobile browsing with Safari." Chapman and Cutler also provides remote access to its document management system. "Because the browser works so well, lawyers can go into our private Google search engine and pull any [file] they need," says Nugent.

Another key benefit, say iPhone users, is the device's ability to work with thousands of applications available at Apple's new App Store (accessible directly from the iPhone). Many of these are free, or relatively cheap. IT directors like them because the applications are downloaded and installed directly onto the iPhone, so nothing is ever put on a desktop PC. This allows firms to maintain a safe, locked-down PC environment, while giving lawyers the freedom to add any mobile application they desire.

Some of the most popular apps among lawyers are Google Mobile App, which lets users enter search queries via voice, and – thanks to the iPhone's location-tracking capability – find nearby businesses and services without taking the extra step of specifying a location; Taxi!, which provides telephone numbers (and user ratings) for local car service companies; and Jott for iPhone, which transcribes voice notes to text.

BlackBerry's answer, App World, was launched earlier this year. With BlackBerry saying the impact so far on sales has been positive – and there are some excellent apps available – the device's legion of business users will be closely watching its progress.

And no-one is expecting BlackBerry to take this challenge to its hard-won legal turf lightly. With BlackBerry gearing up to respond to the iPhone, lawyers look set to see more mobile communications innovations heading their way soon.

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BlackBerry and lawyers – hard to separate

One of the major benefits of BlackBerry for the legal sector comes in the shape of tie-ins with major software providers specifically tailored to the professional services sectors. mAXBridge's mTEM Time Manager allows users to assign the time spent on each phone call or email to a specific client – a blessing for those who have to manually fill in billing time sheets. Another useful gadget comes in the shape of digital dictation programmes, such as those by BigHand, WinScribe and nflow, which allow users to make voice recordings on your device which can then be directly emailed for transcription.

BlackBerry estimates that through increasing the efficiency of fee earners it can save law firms a fair packet of cash – based on its calculations their devices can save up to three hours a week per fee earner, which equates to around £43,000 annually based on a charge-out rate of £300 an hour.

The new BlackBerry Apps is also part of a serious push into the consumer sector, allowing consumers to download applications for music, news and social networking sites such as Facebook.

A version of this article originally appeared in The American Lawyer, Legal Week's US sister title.