[JamesDP]

I have a couple of questions concerning comparisons of the iPhone and BlackBerry devices. I'm due for an upgrade with AT&T in a little over a month and I'm pretty sure I'm either going to get a Bold or an iPhone. I currently use a Blackberry Pearl 8100 since my last upgrade from a Windows Mobile phone. The change is amazing and I can say I will never use Windows Mobile ever again. The email and synchronization options with BlackBerry phones is amazingly easy and I would like to know from people that have used both a Blackberry and 3g iPhone which they think is better when dealing with synchronizing contacts, appointments, etc. with outlook and what the differences are with the email. One thing that has me leaning towards the iPhone currently is the app store. I realize that RIM is currently producing one for a 2009 release but I am extremely impressed with the one that Apple has set up. Any comments concerning any of this would be very helpful. Thanks in advance.

[salphad]

First and foremost, examine what you use your phone for. That will truly be what drives what phone you get.

What features of the Pearl do you currently use most? What features can you not do without?

I haven't sync'ed my phone with Outlook, so I can't comment on that for either phone.

For some background, I went from a Pearl to an iPhone 3G to a Bold.

The iPhone 3G is a great phone...for the average consumer. It's great for entertainment, and using it as a phone. Text messaging is fairly simple also. The user interface is really easy to use. Multi-touch is awesome. I love the ability to scroll with a finger flick, zoom in and out by pinching, tap the screen to open applications, and the accelerometer was fairly quick. The keyboard takes a little getting used to, but once you do, it's fairly intuitive.

Now, I switched back to a Blackberry because the Blackberry offers me more of what I need out of a phone. The applications were great, but most of the apps in the App Store are geared towards entertainment. There are some productivity apps though, as well.

BlackBerry offers true push e-mail. I use gmail as my primary account, and having true push e-mail is nice. And then the usual gripes. Copy/paste, MMS, etc. I didn't realize how much I used copy/paste on my phone until I didn't have it. There were also cases when I wanted to send MMS messages. I also was annoyed by the fact that I couldn't forward SMS messages.

You can also run apps in the background on a BlackBerry. Having JiveTalk running in the background, or loading that web page while I reply to a text message, saves quite a bit of time. You couldn't do that on an iPhone. They do have Beejive, but it has a roundabout way of alerting you of new messages. It keeps you logged in, server side. And then sends you an e-mail when someone IMs you.

I have quite a few friends with BlackBerrys also. This way, I can communicate with them via BlackBerry Messenger and save some text messages.

Synchronizing to the iPhone was fairly easy. You plug it into your computer, fire up iTunes, tell it what to synchronize, and hit Sync. The process on the BlackBerry is fairly similar.

Composing e-mails is about the same on both devices. The auto-correct is fairly well implemented on the iPhone. But I love having a physical keyboard again.

My advice would be to evaluate what you use your phone for mostly. I much prefer BlackBerry for messaging and communication, but the iPhone and Safari are hands down the best mobile web browsing experience right now.

[AStranger]

I used to have an iphone and recently went to a bold.

I think the bold is a bit better with syncronizing with outlook than the iphone. I don't know if the iphone's calendar would even sync or if it was only the contacts.

In any case, I would recomend taking a trip to an apple store to play with an iphone so you can see what it is like.

I have the bold and I find that it has a better speaker, a more sensitive mic and it hold and grabs a signal a lot better than my iphone.

My iphone was first gen, but I don't know if they improved it or not for the next gen.

[Duvi]

If you are willing to pay for MobileMe, I believe syncing is in favor of the iPhone. A couple of things that get synced without even having to connect it to the PC, email with push (with Me), calendar and contacts. For notes, there are apps in the app store that do this well also.

With that said, I now have the bold and love it. The reason being is because it fits my needs more. I love and use bbm daily and honestly needed a phone. I realized that my bb had 4 times, sorry, 5 times as much rF in my local supermarket. My iPhone had 1 bar of 3g, going to EDGE and back to 1 bar of 3g, while my Bold was at full strength, 5 bars!

This may not be the case for you and you just have to see what you first in a device. Do you listen to mp3s and youtube it all day? Or you relying on email on a constant basis? Can you deal with a touch screen or do you need a physical keyboard.

[gr8wheelss]

My son has had a BB since he was 16 and now he is 21. ... Pearl, Curve and updated Curves.

I bought him a new 8900 yesterday because he has QUIT/GIVEN UP on the iPHONE 3G he has had since it was purchased on day 1 of it being offered here in Canada.

Since he was 16 the WOW factor for him has always been more important than the use factor as these things are for most kids. Form vs Function!

Now, my son, who is in his third year of business studies at university, has dumped the "wow that is so cool" factor because it has worn out. Not because of what he is studying because he has figured out the toy factor of the iPHONE.

He has given up on the iPHONE for many reasons but the top issues are below.


It took APPLE three months to take a flawed 3G OS and finally upgrade it to 2.1 ... it was a call every second day to Rogers to try and keep the damn thing working that some how he tolerated.

I felt badly for Rogers, (which is hard to do because usually I refer to them affectionately as "Robbers" after my monthly bill arrives for 4 phones. )

Well ... v2.1 seemed to fix some or most of the issues but Apple has never been able to make the OS right from day one and since he has upgraded to v2.2 the problems of dropped calls has come back and new issues have and are showing up.

This kid LIVED ON and FOR his iPHONE. He would have given me up before his iPHONE.

Last Friday he waved the white flag and said, Dad I give up!

HUH?

He said I give up ... the "iPHONE looks nice and sometimes works nice but it is a pain in the ***. I can't count on it and since v.2.2 the dropped calls have gone back up to the same level as v2.0"

He asked if I would consider buying him a new BB for Christmas.

To know that he has given up on the iPHONE was when ... he said this in a gee I am growing up voice and I can admit my mistakes, that voice that says I know I don't deserve one because I was the one who bugged the crap out of you until you bought me an iPHONE, so if you and Mom are trying to decide on a Christmas gift for me a new 8900 would be my wish or secondly a BOLD like yours". However I created this mess by being such a pain in the A$$ in demanding an iPHONE, so I will understand if you don't want to get me one and leave the problem with me."

When my son gives up on his iPHONE there are HUGE problems.

Nota Bene: We have also been required to have a new replacement iPHONE sent out about 6 weeks ago because of internal issues inside this phone ... battery ... who the heck knows because Rogers didn't.

Long live BlackBerry

Many of the "kids" who are using the "iPHONE toy" today will soon be returning to their BlackBerry roots.

The shine is off the iPHONE.

*** Second P.S. >>> He is going to keep and use his iTOUCH which has always worked well as it should for media uses. Also posted in the BOLD/iPHONE stare off forum.