iOS to My First BlackBerry
I've had my Z10 for three weeks now. It's my first BlackBerry, and I've had iPhones since their inception and I've been quite invested in the Apple eco system in terms of apps, music & books.
I'll say right away - whenever I pick up my iPhone 4 these days, I keep trying to use gestures!
Initially I had a number of concerns about how moving from the Apple eco-system would work for me. I use iTunes Match, iCloud (purchased additional storage) and I have an iPad integrated into all of this with a Mac Book Pro on top. What I've found is that I now use my iPhone 4 as an MP3 player and I still use the iTunes Match service every bit as much as I used to (I travel everywhere for work, so I leave it plugged into my car and change things at leisure whenever I get to a Wi-Fi point), but my iPad behaviour has been modified: I now use my Z10 to look things up far more than I use the tablet.
I've found the concentrated and economical hub to be the best thing I have ever used in a mobile device. The removal of the need to keep going in and out of apps is one of the reasons my iPad behaviour has changed I think. It saves me time, and I wonder how many hours of my life I will save to do other things over the course of the two year contract? Time isn't just money.
I've seen many of the "handset vs Z10" videos, and I feel many of them miss the point. The QNX platform doesn't need 8 cores and more RAM than NASA - it's been a real eye opener to see how efficient coding makes best use of its resources and isn't wasteful. I see no lag, no crashing, no freezing, and unlike my iPhone, I have never had an app unexpectedly quit on me.
For 90% of the tasks I use a phone for (keeping in touch, responding to people, working and leisure), this phone has been the best investment I've made to date. I can use the Apple eco-system for my other needs, and I will work out migration to something more open when I have the time to do so. It's only since coming away from it that I realised how deep the illusion is of lock in to Apple, and actually it's very easy to get free and I have ZERO regrets in doing this. Also, the communities for BlackBerry aren't so 'fanboy' driven, and places like CrackBerry are genuinely a lot of fun to be in, and people help each other out without expletives and persistent trolling, which is frankly fantastic.
Anyway, I just wanted to share this for any Apple users out there that may be considering a move to a BB10 device. My experience has been great, and the device has genuinely made a difference to me and I recommend it wholeheartedly.