Modern Law Magazine: The Relentless March of the Smart Mobile Device

The July 2012 edition of the new UK publication Modern Law Magazine contains an article about mobile devices and law firms. In particular, the article summarizes some statistics about smart phone penetration in the UK (over 50%!). The piece then proceeds to talk about a Google study describing different types of smart phone users who are always “wired”.  The difference between the mobile web and mobile apps are also summarized.

The article categorizes most law firm apps are “passive” or “semi-passive”. The article contrasts such apps with “active” apps that offer “real-time interaction.”

We at Law Firm Mobile sometimes break down apps into the following general categories:

• Firm Information – These apps present information often found on the firm’s website, such as practice descriptions, offices, and attorney biographies.
• Substantive Resources – These apps offer substantive legal information demonstrating a firm’s expertise in a particular area (while many firms just repackage existing content from their website, more sophisticated law firms take the time to package content in mobile-sized morsels, akin to blog posts, demonstrating a better understanding of mobile users (and their small screens).
• Tools – These apps go beyond text and static information and provide some type of interactive features, often as “calculators” that provide a result of interest to the user.

The magazine article featured an app called iAccident. In the small law firm world, apps for accidents fall into the third category, as a tool potential clients can use. We commend the creation of tool-type apps, but we are keeping our minds open to see the extent to which this particular implementation is put to consistent use by consumers.