[edstewbob]

I have both a Pearl and an iPhone 3G and use them both. Don't ask me why but I do. I've been reading many comparisons between the two of them and thinking about the things I like better on my BB so what follows is my personal observation and experience. I played for a while with the Storm but it sucks with the big clicker so I don't think it is as good as the keyboard BB's. BB is more useful in my opinion in the end than the iP.

iPhone is definitely more sexy with great graphics, browser, full email HTML support, and great games. The new BB HTML email is a joke compared to the iP. The BB is better at HTML email with one of the addon products available. I used BBSmart before RIM released their HTML email and now I wish I would have continued using it as it is better than BB HTML email.

The iP app store is huge and mind boggling with many duplicate apps that do about the same thing. Lots of good stuff, much of it free, but the amount of stuff is overwelming. Downloading an app for iP is simple compared to BB apps.

The BB opens a USB drive when plugged in to easily move vids, music, pics to or from the phone's external storage and manage where files are located. iP has to use webdav or ftp to move data to/from the phone.

Notifications for events are much more advanced for BB. Each "event" can be customized to include ringtones, led blinking, vibrate or any combination.

Consolidated Inbox. This is a biggy. One place to look for all messages is very helpful. All email inbox, missed calls, voicemail, BB messenger msgs, txt msgs - one place to look for anything that needs attention. For the iP you get to look all over hells half acre for items awaiting your action.

Copy/paste. I use this pretty frequently and it is very easy to use on the BB and of course iP does not have it.

Easy turn on with one key press after sleep for BB. iP needs a key press and a swipe to unlock - lame and a waste of time.

Battery life huge difference - I can go two days easy on my pearl with moderate usage but the iP needs battery recharge at least daily with moderate use. If I am browsing in 3G I can almost watch the battery drop.

I have to use itunes for everything app wise. No manual control of the iP like the BB. iTunes is sometimes confusing to use, not that intuitive unless you have used it for awhile and is geared toward music with apps added on like a barnacle.

I cannot sync contacts, etc. without mobileme for a hundred bucks a year. BB has manual sync with Notes and Yahoo with desktop software and ota sync with Google now, which screwed up my contact list due to a recent bug
:-)

Custom dictionary - easily editable custom dictionary for words I type that are nonstandard for BB. I can clean it out occasionally as the BB tries to remember words I type, even if they are wrong. Nothing of the sort on iP.

There are many more settings to control behavior of BB device with lots and lots of settings for how the BB operates, from sounds, to screen dimming and sleep controls. many more settings on the browser than iP.

iP has no unobtrusive notification led, iPhone push without an led will not be as good as BB. When receiving push email I can have the led flash for some period of time without any other notification. There is no way on the iP to determine if there are emails or other messages waiting without opening the device first. You can get sound and vibrate notifications but there is no led to remind you later that something needs attention.

There are no "themes" on iP. Themes are a nice way to give the BB a custom look and feel.

I cannot change the battery on iP. Since the battery sucks this can be a big deal so you have to either not use the phone or lug around an external battery charger to use when the battery drains down. For BB I seldom need it but carry around a small battery in my change purse all the time.

Suretype works better than iP smart dictionary, especially with custom dictionary. BB knows the words more quickly and accurately that the iP from my experience.

I can type much faster on BB, even the Pearl without full querty. The iP is kewl with the characters popping up larger but my fat fingers sometimes get in the way and I can't really see the character very well. I frequently type the wrong character at the left or right margins. The BB touch keys can be used without closely watching the screen, unlike the iP.

No auto on/off function. The BB can be programmed to automatically turn the phone off and on each day to conserve battery life. Many people turn it off for several hours in the middle of the night.

Poor alarm clock in iphone. No way that I can find to use alarm clock in vibrate mode only for iP. This is important when I want to get up before my wife and vibrate is good enough to wake me up.

Explorer on bb allows navigation of directories, creation and deletion of directories. This is easy to use to move through the device directories on the BB but I saw no equivalent for the iP.

Docs to go allows creation of word, excel, and powerpoint docs, standard docs to go allows creation of word and excel only. iP can view these docs but BB can also edit them. Not something I use a lot to edit a doc but nice to have.

Blackberry messenger. No such tool for iP and it is great on the BB. Very easy to send small files and voice notes to other BB users. Can have group chats on BB. Can customize notifications to differentiate from messenger, facebook, etc. so you know exactly where the message came from before looking on the BB.

No video recording on the iP but the BB does a bang up job of this.

No tethering on the iP but I use the BB all of the time with my laptop to connect to the Internet.

Oh, and one other difference, probably the biggest of them all, is that the BB allows apps to run at the same time and remain running in the background. This is huge because I can let Viigo run all the time and collect news articles for me to view at anytime, start my browser up to view something, start reading email messages, and any other app that i want and they all run at the same time. I can then hot key between any of my active apps and get their current results. iPhone is essentially Johnny one-note, except for email push so the full capabilities of osx are locked out for normal apps. I can't get inbox messages from Facebook for example until I startup the Facebook app.

I want to love my iPhone but it has a long way to go to replace my BB.

[ftblryan]

i agree very detailed