www.lawyersweekly.

ca THE LAWYERS WEEKLY December 24, 2010

S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T

FOCUS SECTION YEAR IN REVIEW S9

Smart firms adapt to smartphones this year

OMAR HA-REDEYE
This was the year of the
smartphone — cellphone manu-
facturers sold nearly 270 mil-
lion smartphone devices this
year, up by 35 per cent from
2009. After the releases of the
BlackBerry Torch, EVO 4G, and
iPhone 4, more than half of all
North Americans now own a
smartphone.
Canadian law firms are lead-
ing the way for smartphone
legal marketing. Torys LLP
launched an
A December study iPhone app
found that 80 per on March 2,
cent of smartphone one of the
owners use apps. first in the
world to do
so. The application reproduces
firm news from their Twitter
feed, maintains a company dir-
ectory, provides the videos on
YouTube channel and uses GPS
to give directions to their offices.
PHOTO COURTESY OF PANVISTA MEDIA Unfortunately, apps con-
stantly need to be maintained
and upgraded. And an iPhone
app obviously won’t work on a
BlackBerry. Stuart Wood, Chief
Marketing Officer for Torys LLP,
is contemplating a second gen-
eration app, but is gathering
feedback from the firm’s clients
first. For now, the majority of
mobile visitors to Torys con-
tinue to be iPhone users.
Other firms have decided to
pre-empt these challenges from
the outset. When Ogilvy Renault
LLP launched its smartphone
strategy in October, it launched
an app for both the iPhone and
the BlackBerry.
“The Blackberry is still the
tool of choice among our key
audience, the business crowd.
The iPhone still has low pene-
tration,” said Sameer Dharg-
alkar, Director, Business
Development for Ogilvy. They
also launched a mobile version
of their website, employing the
services of Toronto-based Pan-
vista Media.
“Mobile is as important as
the Internet was in the mid-
90s,” said Taia Postolati, Mobile
Strategist at Broadplay, a
Toronto-based mobile app and
web developer. She feels mobile
web is far more important than
apps, “Many apps out there are a
novelty. People use them a few
times and then lose interest.”
She recommends developing a
mobile site once smartphone
traffic to the website hits about
10 to 15 per cent of all visitors.
A December Moosylvania
Marketing study found that
although 80 per cent of smart-
phone owners use apps, they
only regularly use a third of
those downloaded on their
phone. Consequently, some law
firms are focusing exclusively on
“mobilizing” their website. John
Gillies, Director of Practice Sup-
port for Cassels Brock & Black-
well LLP, claims the demo-
graphics of app users doesn’t
directly match with people
interested in viewing their web-
site. They’re working in-house
to mobilize their site.
Dhargalkar is not so sure. He
agrees there was much more
emphasis on the mobile web
than apps this past summer,
“but businesses are finding apps
to be more user-friendly and
useful on the business-to-busi-
ness side.”
Apps can be built for clients
for a specific purpose and may
not be available to the general
public. For example, Torys
launched a custom app for the
Corporate Counsel World Sum-
mit 2010 on Sept. 26 to 28 in
Toronto, containing a program
agenda and useful information
for participants.
Developers see room for apps
and mobile websites together.
“Providing both apps and a
mobile website gives Ogilvy’s
audience a choice,” noted John
Robinson, VP Marketing at Pan-
vista. “Mobile websites make it
easy for casual visitors to quickly
See Smartphones Page S12
December 24, 2010 THE LAWYERS WEEKLY www.lawyersweekly.ca

S P E C I A L S U P P L E M E N T

S12 YEAR IN REVIEW FOCUS SECTION

Real wildcard
— Google’s
Android system
Smartphones
Continued From Page S9

find a firm’s information, while

smartphone apps connect an
audience consistently turning to
their firm for expertise.”
One major growth area will
be video. “Canadians watch the
most video online out of any
country in the world,” said Pos-
tolati. “It’s hard to read on a
smaller screen, but users do
want to connect and learn about
a firm and their services.”
It’s a trend that Ogilvy has
taken notice of. They’re shooting
for 10 to 15 video podcasts a
year, including more informal
videos on legislative develop-
ments. One recent video fea-
tures David Allgood, Executive
Vice-President and General
Counsel for Royal Bank of Can-
ada, speaking on initiatives to
increase value of legal services
to in-house counsel.
Ogilvy has bigger strategic
challenges as the firm under-
goes a merger with the inter-
national law firm Norton Rose,
based in London, England (see
YIR story p. S9). Smartphone
use varies in international mar-
kets, with Symbian-based
phones proving much more
popular in Europe and Asia.
Ogilvy is already considering a
Symbian platform.
The real wildcard is Google’s
Android operating system. Sym-
bian, BlackBerry, and iPhone
market shares are all expected
to drop, and Android is expected
to capture nearly a quarter of
the market by
2014, a 51.2
per cent
increase. Pos-

85%
tolati attrib-
utes Android’s
open-source
platform for
its popularity
a m o n g
developers.
By 2011, 85
per cent of By 2011, 85 per
phones will cent of phones
have a web will have a web
browser, and browser.
more firms
are sure to respond. Graham
Ross, Director of Marketing and
Business Development at Davies
Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP,
is planning an app and mobile
web launch in the New Year.
“The world has already
moved there. It’s a matter of
getting ahead of things now,”
said Ross. “Clients already carry
a mobile phone, and there’s an
increased necessity to com-
municate with them on those
devices.” 

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