This month has several tech anniversaries that affected attorneys as a profession. About 20 years ago, having a BlackBerry was the rage! But after two decades of service, BlackBerry has announced its ending critical services for many devices. This has to do in very large part to the release of the iPhone 15 years ago. What does the iPhone’s anniversary have to do with the demise of Blackberry’s core service? A lot.

As iPhone and its Android competitors became more popular (as they could do much more than just emails and calls as the BlackBerry platform was sandboxed), its “(Legal) Professional” users wanted to have their device instead of a Blackberry. The concept of Bring Your Own Device (“BYOD”) was a win-win for everyone – especially big business.

Big business quickly realized that they could defray the costs of purchasing, upgrading, and servicing an expensive item that every employee needed by letting them buy their own. Sure, the employees may have to install several apps and take certain security measures on their devices, but that is a minor inconvenience for the user. Plus, the user can have the smart phone of their choice. You have a Happy Employee with the smart phone of their choice and a Happier Business that does not have to spend money. Like I said, win-win for all. But on the same token, tech needs to keep up with its customers, especially us attorneys.

Make sure your software programs are keeping up to date with new hardware and OPERATING systems!!!

Cloud services are an essential part of an attorney’s toolbox today. From document data storage, sharing outside the office and synching across internal users (now often in different locations), these services always need to be up to date. I was alarmed to learn that Dropbox, a popular service used by attorneys, is not up to date with the new Apple M1 chips. Dropbox only just started to push out beta for M1 users. This is ridiculous and alarming for the public, especially attorneys! We need to know our files are up-to-date and in sync with every team member (including ourselves with multiple devices). So, BOLO if you have a new shiny M1 and you use Dropbox. Now, I have to question my Dropbox use as you have to wonder how selective it (let alone other services) is going to not quickly adopt to new and improve hardware and microchips regardless of maker, i.e., Windows or Mac. As BlackBerry sandboxed its utility and went the way of the dodo bird, Dropbox and other commonly used software programs would be well advised to not do the same.

RIP Blackberry! You had a great idea; others ran with it as you could not keep up.