Don't get caught in iPhone hype

Now that the Apple iPhone has finally been released, it is all too easy to get caught up in the hype.  If you are a lawyer or law firm staff member and you are looking for a mobile business tool, the iPhone isn't it.  You'd be much better off with a Palm OS-based Treo such as the 755p, 700p or 680.

The iPhone has an attractive design, but it is more a mobile entertainment system than a business-class productivity tool.  And if you find the ability to sync with your practice management system's calendar and contact list valuable, forget about the iPhone.  It can't do it.  And if you use MS Exchange with Outlook for your email instead of an ordinary POP account from your ISP, the complications and compromises associated with switching your email to the iPhone will frustrate you.

As technology consultants, we know that some of the lawyers we support will rush out and trade in their Treo or other smart phone for an iPhone, then call and ask us to make it work with their existing software.  In most cases, that will be an impossible task.

It is worth noting that the inability to sync with the iPhone is not the fault of your law office software.  The blame lies with Apple.  Apple, as it has done with the iPod with its iTunes software and store, wants to limit access to the iPhone.  As it now stands, Apple will not allow software developers to write programs that will run on the iPhone, including synchronization conduits.  Instead, third-party developers are limited to writing applications that can run in the iPhone's Safari web browser.  That is a huge limitation.  Therefore, it is unlikely that we will see iPhone sync conduits for Amicus Attorney, Time Matters, PCLaw, or other popular law office programs anytime soon, and possibly never.    

So heed this warning.  At this point, with the lack of third-party software support and only a clunky workaround for MS Exchange email using Outlook Web Access, the iPhone is not ready for prime time if you are a law firm user interested in a productivity tool.