Sunday, May 29, 2011

Why The iPad?

I am frequently asked if iDocExplorer, or our newest app iTimeKeep, will work on devices other than the iPad, XOOM, Rim Playbook, etc. The short answer is yes and no.

For the slightly longer answer you will need to understand what runs Bellefield's services. We have built a system called the Bellefield Connect Platform. This enterprise level platform allows us to do several things with relative ease:

1. Have seamless 2-way communication and integration with virtually all legal management systems, Aderant, ProLaw, Elite, etc.
2. Deliver data very quickly and efficiently with state of the art 2-way encryption schemes similar to the highest level of banking security.
3. Manage users and plans through the Bellefield Subscription Engine.
4. Deliver this data to any mobile device.

There is one other thing that needs a little clarification. Mobile devices are, for the most part, a pretty face to display the data it requests, pulls, and pushes over the web. There is very little computing done on these devices. The Bellefield Connect Platform dangles this data ready to be delivered to any device.

We have chosen to lead with the iPad for a very solid reason. Simply, they are everywhere! Sales are through the roof. To date Apple has sold over 19 millions iPads and there are about 65,000 apps, and some analysts predict 120 millions iPads will be sold by the end of 2012.The reason for this is that it is a superior device and looks to be so for a long time to come, it is extremely easy and intuitive, and requires very little training or maintenance, just to name a few of the reasons.

Apple’s iPad has the largest market share compared to any other tablet available. In a recent survey, the iPad has been termed as having a commanding lead in the U.S. tablet market with 82% of the pie. While we have witnessed a number of releases recently, specially by Android tablets with companies including, Motorola, Samsung and others, they still lag far behind in market share. While the Apple iPad has a clear lead over others, Samsung is seen following the champ with just 4% of the market, even after the release of much anticipated Galaxy Tablet. Others will follow, Dell and Motorola having a limited spread with just 3% and 2% of the market.

If it comes to pass that a another device starts to get some traction then we will, on very short order, provide an interface for it. Will it be the Droid, Blackberry, Google - or will the iPad maintain its dominance? With the Bellefield Platform we have the data ready to deliver to whatever device it is.

2 comments:

  1. I like the Bellefield products and I am on this site looking for Android apps. I respect that you do not yet percieve the android marketshare as significant. But I note that in quoting marketshare statistics you did so by manufacturer and not opperating systems. I don't imagine that you will ever set about creating an App for the use only on the Samsung Tablet, or the Dell Tablet or the Motorola Tablet. Instead I think the demand is for an Android operating system app that will work on tablet manufactured by multiple companies. You are correct that there is no chance that any other device will compare to the ipad's market share anytime soon, but I think you might see things differently if you considered tablet platforms rather than manufactures. Android is not where the Apple OS but it is an opensource platform and that, for now is all they have but history has proven that may be enough. Would you like me to send you a video tape that explains this in more detail, can I assume you'll want to view on a Sony Betamax tape? Even after it was clear Sony had lost the video tape war they still had a larger marketshare than any one other manufacturer of VCRs, but that didn't really provide the incentive Hollywood needed to produce movies on Beta.

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  2. Thanks for the comments Tom.

    We are certainly "in a relationship" with the iPad but it is not monogamous and I will explain why. Our mobile strategy was to build the infrastructure for data to be delivered efficiently and securely to and from any legal system and and then presented natively on any mobile device - which is the genesis of what is now the Bellefield Connect Platform, our Enterprise mobile cloud solution.

    Right now the low hanging fruit is the iPad. But I can see that there are other fruits ripening, some more quickly than others. We are ready willing and able to capitalize on any and all of these technologies, just as soon as I can make a positive business case it will be done.

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