Mobility Mess

Thank goodness there are only two really pc platforms, Windows and Mac.  On the smartphone line, they are really 5 platforms in the United States.  Two of these are brand new but should make a difference.  Here is my short run down on them: 

Mobile Phone Operating Systems in Use

1. Blackberry  (17.4%)
2. MacOS (2.8%)
3. Windows Mobile (12.0%)
4. Palm WebOS (0.0%)
5. Google Android (0.0%)
6. Palm OS (2.3%) Should be replaced by Palm WebOS
7. Symbian (57.1%) Just regular phone, not really a smartphone platform.
8. Linux (7.3%) Only used in Asia for now.

Worldwide Smartphone Adoption 2nd Quarter 2008

 
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=754112

 

1. Blackberry

The granddaddy of smartphones and the most widely used in the law environment.  A lot of legal software is available on the platform and every wireless carrier has a blackberry device.  You have to install separate software to use the wireless sync of emails, contacts, calendar, and tasks.   

http://www.blackberry.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry

Legal Software Supported: Amicus Mobile, TimeMatters, PCLaw TE, Worldox Mobile, Airtime
Carriers: AT&T, Sprint,  T-Mobile, Alltel, Verizon
Devices: Pearl, Curve, Storm, ect.

2.MacOS

 

Basically the iPhone.  I got the Ipod touch in November (an iPhone without the phone capabilities) and in my opinion the iPhone is the most stable and easy to use mobile platform.  The safari browser is the fastest smartphone browser.  I hate typing on it and would prefer a sliding keyboard.  There are a ton of cool apps for it, unfortunately not a lot of legal specific ones yet. 

http://www.apple.com/iphone/features/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone

Legal Software Supported: Worldox Mobile
Carriers: AT&T
Devices: iPhone

 

3. Windows Mobile

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_mobile

The big problem with Windows Mobile is that all the Carriers have bundled a ton of crappy software with it.  To really enjoy a windows mobile device you need to wipe it and install a new rom.  This is not something the average user can do.  The HTC phones are the best.  I am using the Windows Tilt or HTC Kaiser and love it, but only after I wiped the crappy AT&T rom.  The internet browsing is horrible. 

Legal Software Supported: Amicus Mobile, TimeMatters, PCLaw TE, Worldox Mobile, Airtime
Carriers: AT&T, Sprint,  T-Mobile, Alltel, Verizon
Devices: HTC, Palm, Samsung, ect.

4. Palm WebOS

Just when we thought we were done with the palm they pull us back in.  This is a new Palm operating system and the hit of this years CES.  The phone is not on the market yet so it will be awhile to we know more about it. 

http://www.palm.com/us/products/phones/pre/index.html#video
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Pre

Legal Software Supported: NONE 
Carriers: Sprint
Devices: PalmPre

5. Google Android

The google phone.  It was just released in October so we do not know its effects yet.  My good friend Tom O’Conner had a sales person call him up and try to get him to switch to the Google Phone.  Tom made some inquires and from what he was told the phone basically only supported GMail and Google Docs, no exchange server sync or Word Documents.  Until this is remedied it is not going to make headway in any business environment.

http://www.t-mobileg1.com/g1-learn-overview.aspx?fl=true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_android

Legal Software Supported: NONE 
Carriers:  T-Mobile
Devices: HTC TMOBILE G1

Comments

[Reverse cell phone lookup]

Symbian is still the king, although it is not the past king, lol.