For much of the past decade, BlackBerrys have inspired all manner of attached-at-the-hip, pry-it-from-my-dead-fingers jokes. And for good reason. They’ve been ubiquitous—and seemingly indispensable—among attorneys and other professionals: a secure, built-for-the-enterprise mobile e-mail device. In The American Lawyer ‘s 2011 technology survey, 100 percent of responding firms supported BlackBerry devices.
One might think, then, that the flagging fortunes of Research In Motion Limited, the Canadian company responsible for the BlackBerry, would be a cause for concern for law firms. Indeed, you’d have to look hard to find another company that has suffered so dramatic a decline, assuming you don’t live near a Kodak factory. The BlackBerry’s worldwide smartphone market share plunged into single digits in the fourth quarter of 2011, according to the market research firm Gartner Inc., its 8.8 percent market share trailing that of both iOS and Android. RIM’s highly anticipated tablet, the BlackBerry PlayBook, required dramatic price cuts just to stay viable. BlackBerry 10, the much needed update to the platform’s operating system, was delayed, and isn’t expected until the second half of 2012. And just to cap a truly horrendous year, RIM suffered an embarrassing service outage in October, with BlackBerry devices unable to send or retrieve e-mail for hours in the United States (and for days overseas). By January, RIM’s co–CEOs were out, and the company’s stock was selling at its lowest level in eight years. (“BlackBerry continues to offer security, reliability, and value for law firms and other security-conscious customers,” RIM said in a statement. “This is one of the reasons why BlackBerry continues to be a leading mobile platform in the legal industry.”)
