moving from iphone TO blackberry - anybody done it?

Looking to take the plunge from my iphone 3g to a Torch (or Torch 2 when it's out) - based in UK.
Not iphone-bashing (not my scene), but I've fallen out of love with it - I've had to jailbreak it to get it to do the things I want it to do "out of the box".

Wife has just moved over to a Torch from Android and is very happy. But her expectations from a phone and interaction is different to mine. I like to tweak/mess! :D

I suppose my question is regarding the change of culture from Apple to 'berry. Have ex-iphone users had a good experience using a 'berry? If so, how?

If not, why?

Personally, I can live without a load of useless apps (a la Apple App store), but I do like the syncing of calendars/contacts (my house runs with Macs anyway)....

I've got time on my side anyway (Torch 2 - UK release September-ish?) - iPhone 5 (meh). Android phones just don't seem bolted together from a software aspect..... Windows phone - don't know enough about it to comment.

Thoughts? opinions?

Dan

jep, i did. i owned the iphone classic and the iphone 3GS and went to the BlackBerry 9700.

first things first, mac support for blackberry is horrible. i own a macbook and i am nearly unable to do anything with my blackberry on it. even for os updates you will need a windows system or at least a virtual machine...
The os is of course nowhere near as intuitive as iOS although it has it's benefits, you can change nearly anything and i personally like the way a blackberry works.

really, it is just a matter of type, i do not regret anything and love my berry and have an ipod touch as well, which is just not as appealing as my bb to me. when the 9900 is going to hit germany it will already be the third berry i will get.

I started with BlackBerry, went to iPhone, then went back.

If you like to tweak/mess, you will love BlackBerry for this. I find that they are infinitely more customizable, from layout, wallpapers an themes to actual coding and behavior. (I installed some .cod on my 9780 that put text under the home screen icons, for instance.) blackBerry supports developers, so there are many programs available to make your own apps.

I also prefer the organizational capabilities of BB, which was ultimately the reason I switched back from iPhone. I have my calendars, apps, and memos available in one app (called PocketInformant, a smaller-featured version is also available on iPhone!) I don't have to switch between apps, and all sync with both my native calendar app, and my computer!

Most ppl I know don't have a "berry" good time and end up switching to the iphone. Its uncommon to hear one switching from the iphone to bb lol.

But the iphone rly isn't a true phone imo. Messaging, emailing and bbming is what the bb is all about. Its all a cinch w the keyboard. For customization, a jb iphone is rly still the best option. Join the bb network with 9900.. Already advertised on voda uk website. The torch isn't great I feel bcos its got all sorts of problems with the sliding mechanism. Torch 2 shld be better I think but its way too shiny lol.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

Thanks for the comments so far.
Agreed though - it IS a strange way of doing it. :D
Don't get me wrong, I love Apple stuff, and use them heavily throughout the house (I also use them with my music), but I don't like how the phone is SO locked down. A great iOS, agreed, but I think it's a bit childish.....
I bought iphone as I (thought I) wanted an all-in-one device, of which iphone does this relatively well. But I'm realising now that I don't want this.

I guess that my beef is more so that I've "fallen out of love" with iphone. I'm bored of it.
The text "bubbles" that I thought were quirky, I now find to be juvenile.
Being picky, it is a GREAT media player (ipod), but I feel it is a pretty mediocre phone.
FWIW, I only use the ipod part in the car - something that I can use anyway (got an old ipod). So the phone/comms device aspect is something I'm quite interested in.


Make sense? (again, not knocking iphone, but I think I need a change of scenery!)

Dan

ps I think I need something a bit more mature - I'm 38, not a teenager - no offence!

I started out with a blackberry then went to iphone for 2 years now back to blackberry 9800 and love it i dont miss my iphone one bit. This phone is a phone a great machine for email,bbm and work stuff unlike the iphone with there slow email time and tons of apps if you like games get an iphone thats what them seem to be focusing on:D

I did the switch from the iPhone 3G (got it when it launched in Canada in 2008) to the BlackBerry Torch two weeks ago and so far, I don't regret the switch. Having both a physical keyboard and a touch screen is so much better than either or, and the OS layout is better organized than the iPhone. My only major beef is the inability to sync my Yahoo calendar with the BlackBerry, which the iPhone can via CalDAV.

I have had several BBs with an iPhone and Windows mobile phone stuck in there somewhere. I jail broke my iPhone basically because Apple told me not to. My hubby still loves his iPhone, and we both use macs (he has iMac and I have macbook). We stay synced by way of google sync. He still uses mac apps to sync to his computer, but i use google for everything. In short, blackberry thinks more like i do than does Apple.

I changed from an iPhone 4 to a BlackBerry Bold 9780 and I didn't regret it :)

If you're a device tweaker, you should seriously consider a rooted Android. They are highly customizable. If i was to give up my BB it would be for a 'Droid.

I wouldn't say I'm a hardcore tweaker (that sounds SO wrong!:D ), but I had to jailbreak my iphone to get it to do some of the things that it doesn't do as standard, unlike other phones. Ironically, despite the opportunity to put dodgy .ipas on it, I haven't - not really my "scene".

I tweaked because I had to, not necessarily out of choice.

Android just doesn't seem very well bolted together - unlike the Blackberry, which imho, does have a very polished and professional-looking UI.

I upgraded my wife and I's phone from iPhone 3g to Torch 9800 - we're with O2uk and these were a free upgrade on a cheaper tariff - an upgrade to the iPhone 4 would have been �140 and �10 per month more for each phone.

We have Macs at home and I am synching both 9800s to the iMac without a problem using the desktop software.

So far I'm impressed - the 9800 does everything I need it to do with its strengths in calls, email and messaging. I've found phone signal strength better than the iphone.

The phone only syncs one calendar to ical (unless someone can point me to a way round this) and can't sync to MobileMe - I haven't looked into Google synch yet. For now I have had to merge 4 calendars into one, but this is a minor inconvenience.

The one significant glitch has been the email setup update which won't run on either of our 9800s. I have managed to set up BIS online so I get email pushed to the 9800 - far better that the iPhone, although I haven't found a way to keep the IMAP email on the desktop i
in sync with the phone. Hopefully a solution will be found to this.

Apps are generally much stronger on the iPhone, and there are a few that I had that I have been unable to replicate on the Blackberry, although in a couple of case I have found web workaround - e.g. tide charts and depth of field calculator.

Overall the 9800 has impressed me and I don't regret changing, although if the iPhone 4 had been free I might well have stayed with Apple given my mac environment and I probably wouldn't have looked at the 9800.

Mark