Good-bye iPhone, hello (again) BlackBerry

I am now a reverse switcher--I switched from a BlackBerry to an iPhone about six months ago, and now am switching back again. Why? Basically it comes down to the fact that the iPhone is really good at the stuff I do 10 percent of the time, but pretty poor at the stuff I do 90 percent of the time.

This is not to bash the iPhone. It has been a transformative device in the wireless industry and forced everyone else to up their game. It has shuffled the power structure among device makers, service providers, developers, and the broader ecosystem. But such a sophisticated device is a very personal choice, and people have very different priorities for something they use and carry around with them almost every waking hour. My phone is provided by and for work, and I primarily use it for work purposes, and for that I find a BlackBerry much, much more efficient.

Now after having a BlackBerry Bold for a week, I realize how much I was fighting with the iPhone the whole time trying to get it to do what I wanted, at the speed I wanted.

iPhone upsides

There are definitely some things the iPhone does extremely well: 

• Maps: The best out there. Invaluable for me, and I'll miss these, though the latest rev of Google Maps on the Bold does all the same things. It just misses that last bit of visual flair.
• OmniFocus: I'm not really a big app buyer, but this GTD-based task manager is the one app that I use every day. I will lose it on the Bold, and I will miss it. (I'll continue to use it on my Mac.)
• Photos: I love how conveniently I'm able to synch my Aperture photo library with the iPhone, and the experience of showing photos on the screen. It's not something I do that often, but it is very handy when I want it. (I'm mystified why it's relatively laborious to get photos off the iPhone and into Aperture, though, requiring a manual import process as though it were any other SD card.) The imminent Desktop Manager for the BlackBerry promises similar photo (and music) syncing.
• Facebook: The iPhone Facebook app is mostly very good (though often hard to get a refresh), and the new version looks to be even better. But the current FB app on the Bold works very well, is actually faster than the iPhone one, does everything I need, and I find more intuitive to navigate.
• Safari: It's the best mobile browser, and while it has its downsides in general it works very well. But I don't do much mobile Web browsing, it's just not that much fun--still slow and inconvenient, and only worthwhile when there's nothing else to do or you're in a pinch. In truth, it's often more pleasant to look at mobile-specific versions of Web sites like NY Times and Southwest, than it is to try and look at the real page. They load faster, require less scrolling, strip out the advertising, etc. In fact, looking at NY Times mobile is faster than using the NY Times iPhone app (though it doesn't allow caching, but I was never organized enough to cache ahead of time anyway).

iPhone downsides

Now for the things I dislike about the iPhone:

General Usability

• Typing is what I do more than anything else on the iPhone, and it's the thing that causes me the most frustration. It's my No. 1 reason for switching. If I could get on with the touch screen, I would probably keep it. But I just don't like the touch screen. I am literally 3 times faster typing on the Bold, which has an excellent keyboard. No matter how much I "just trust" the iPhone, the number of typos and deletions I have to do is just unacceptable. Yes, it's all well and good to have smart predictive typing, but it keeps doing "fir" instead of "for," "sane" instead of "same," and so on. The horizontal keyboard helps, but then you only get a few lines of text to actually look at, and it's slow to switch when you rotate the device, and sometimes seems to get stuck in horizontal mode after I flip it back to vertical.
• Apple's insistence on the "simple" paned interface is indeed easier to get started with than the Bold, which has more of a learning curve. But unlike the big Mac OS, which has all manner of shortcuts, there are none in the iPhone. You have to follow the tortured route from one app or function to another without shortcuts. This is my second biggest complaint. By contrast the BlackBerry UI is incredibly fast to use once you learn it, as you do a desktop OS. The lengthy menus and the amount of customization possible are intimidating at first, but you quickly realize they contain everything you could conceivably want in any context. The two convenience keys make it instantaneous to get to your most-used apps.
• Fingerprints, earwax and general grime on the iPhone screen; it's constantly dirty and this both mars visibility as well as touch gestures.
• It's tricky to hold to your ear for more than a couple of minutes--too thin at the edge, and slippery. The Bold is bigger in width and thickness (a bit too big, IMO), but it is very secure to hold. It's not quite as well built as the iPhone, however.
• Poor battery life--it requires charging every 1.5 days for me, with 3G on most of the time, no Wi-Fi, and only a few calls a day. Having said that, I'm not doing much better with the Bold so far, so we'll see how it does once I settle into a more normal pattern of usage.
• iPhone camera is very slow to activate (often 7 or 8 seconds for the animated iris to open). It often jogs when I press the poorly placed onscreen button (causing blur) and my finger often gets in the way of the lens. There's no flash, no white balance or exposure control, basic photographic features that have existed in other phones for years.
• It's not that good of an iPod: Using it while it's locked is a pain. Using it in a pocket is a pain. No way to switch off coverflow (as on the Nano)
• No expandability. No card slots to add memory, you have to buy a whole new phone. With the Bold I can add 8 or 16GB micro SD cards for a remarkably low price.

The iPhone represents an interesting paradox that often comes up in usability testing: the UIs that are perceived as the best to use are not always the fastest. However, over time, people's opinions often change from their first impressions as the things that didn't seem that big of a deal at first, and which perhaps aided initial ease of use, now become barriers. At this point, enjoyment drops off dramatically. That's what happened with me. I was ready to throw the iPhone against the wall a few times because of how slow I found it to use, even as I appreciated its visual loveliness.

E-mail

• Shuttling back and forth to look at each e-mail account separately drives me batty. If I'm in my work e-mail account and want to see if my personal e-mail has anything new, it takes four clicks. And then four clicks to get back again to my work account. It takes no clicks in Blackberry to do the same thing because it unifies all e-mail accounts (and texts and IMs) into a single "feed."
• I have to unlock the iPhone to see if I've got a new e-mail, and remember the e-mail unread count from my last time looking at it (for each account). This often takes 30 seconds of constant interaction or more--not a big deal, it may seem, but it pulls my focus away from whatever else I was doing more than it should. The notification light on the Bold tells me at a glance when new mail (or SMS or voice mail) has arrived, saving me the trouble of picking it up to check.
• The iPhone Sent e-mail folder doesn't get populated in real time, and if I want to find a recent message I sent, I have to wait for it to download from the server. This can take several minutes if it's been a while since I looked at my Sent folder. On the BlackBerry, sent e-mails are included inline with received messages, making them easy to go back to.
• iPhone has no customization of font sizes for e-mails (message list, or within a message). With such a large and high-res screen, why can I only see less than five messages at a time if I have the message preview on with two lines? (Reduce message preview to one line and it goes up to...six messages visible! And still only eight if I turn off preview entirely.) That's just a ridiculous waste of space, and means I have to do a lot of scrolling. On the Bold I've got it set so I can see 13 messages at once.
• No auto-text/shortcuts to speed up repetitive message elements (e.g., On the Bold, I have created a shortcut sig and typing it at the end of an e-mail will fill out a signature as needed. On the iPhone you can only have one signature, and it's applied every time or never. And the Bold will let me create any other number of text shortcuts--mtg for meeting, fdi for frog design, inc. and so on). I was stunned when I got the iPhone that it couldn't do this, searching in vain for a way to accomplish it. (Third-party apps exist to do it in an extremely hacked way.)

Calendar

• Entering new appointments takes way too many steps due to the iPhone's modal-paned UI approach. On the Bold, it takes two button presses beyond the typing of the event name; I can be in and out of creating an appointment in a few seconds. Also the BlackBerry does simple things like allow a default setting for meeting reminders, where on the iPhone I have to select that every single time (I always want one). The numeric keypad on the BlackBerry makes entering times and dates much faster than the iPhone's gimmicky and finicky slot-machine style tumblers.
• No week view. This is my most frequently used view after day view, and not having it is a real pain for planning purposes. The iPhone's month view is next to useless.
• No snooze for meeting reminders, a huge miss
• Can't jump to a specific date in the distant future, have to tediously scroll or switch to and from month view. Why can't I swipe sideways on a day to skip to the next day, like with everything else on the phone? On the Bold, press G (go to date) and enter the date, done.
• Where in the day new appointments get inserted seems random. Sometimes late in the day or where an appointment is already placed, or even will default to a time in the past! With all the CPU power, you'd think it would at least just look for the next open slot. And why can't I double tap an hour in the day and activate a new appointment at that time?
• Can't send comments along with appointment acceptance/decline notices--a frequently needed ability to add nuance to the person who requested the meeting. 

Phone

• On the iPhone, dialing specific contacts is rather tedious if they are not saved in favorites. On the Bold I just start typing their name and it finds the number and dials it. I found a third-party app for the iPhone that does something similar (thought not as well), but it's bizarre that with all this CPU and screen that Apple hasn't rethought this daily activity.
• Muting the phone while on a conference call is a multistep process that requires looking at the screen. The Bold requires just a button push on the top and can be done blind. Safer while driving, where muting/unmuting needs to be done frequently when on a headset. The Bold also has a nice note-taking feature while on a call, and I can e-mail notes to myself or others afterward.

I'm clearly in the minority with my gripes. Most people seem to love their iPhones. Like I said, I'm not trying to bash the iPhone and say no one else should like it; this is a very personal choice. But at least for the time being, the Bold is a much better match for my needs.

[AnthonyM1188]

I don't want to sound like a fanboy, though I will, but many of the downsides to the iPhone you listed are addressed by the 3gs or can be taken care of by accessories.
First thing is the 3gs screen is much better when it comes to smudges.
The ipod on the 3gs can be controlled by headphones with a mic, such as blue tooth headphones, the standard apple headphones, and now bose has designed a set headphones with the mic.
The phone is not difficult to hold with a $10 silicon case.
The iPhone 3gs' battery life stands up to that of virtually any other 3g phone, and there are battery cases that can double the usage time.
The amount of time it takes for an app to launch is cut in half on the 3gs over the 3g, including the camera.
And finally the camera has been improved with the auto focus, including the lighting, although it should have gotten a flash or a white balance.

[hkchao]

Yes, but again, this is not the 90%. It's all about being able to communicate efficiently. None of your comments address that part. It would only be addressed by a complete OS overhaul. The sad part is, the 5+ year old BlackBerry can run circles around an iPhone 3GS when it comes to communication efficiency. If you spend more time watching movies, listening to music, and playing games, then you bought the right device for you. Remember, not everyone has the same needs or use their smartphones the same way.

[2ndfallout]

You make some good points. FYI there is a type-o in the Phone section:

"(thought not as well)" should probably be "(though not as well)"

[frozenjello]

Also, "searching in vein" should be "searching in vain"

[mhg3r]

Adam,
Thanks for that very interesting article. Though I have not read all the deatils, as an iPhone user I agree on a lot of your pros and cons. And esp. when we look on productivity there should be no "stylish reason" but only facts that count.

But: I might get it wrong when you say:
"Muting the phone while on a conf call is a multi-step process that requires looking at the screen. "
There is the little switch at the upper left side to switch off the sound? No problem for me.

Best,
Michael

[Lars_Mielke]

This is exactly why I use the iPod Touch as a "fun" device and the BlackBerry to "work".
Email and typing is just so much faster with the BB.

iPhone with a sliding keyboard ... I would buy it instantly.

[yobluedude]

I'm with you completely. It's sad to say that I'm bored with the iPhone. I have more than 1GB free on my phone and yet it still runs slowly. I'm dying to get out of my contract with AT&T and then I'm off to Sprint to get the Palm Pre.

[ibeddiev]

I totally agree with you. I too am bored with the iphone, lack of customization, limited phone funtionality, and crappy carrier. I am planning on breaking my contract and going to Sprint for the HTC Hero. I do enjoy the games and apps, but do I really need those on my phone? I think I will get over it. Hopefully Spotify will be available next year and that will be the icing on the cake.

The iPhone does appeal to the masses since it is a great piece of hardware, but phone functions aren't the first function. It's a computer that has phone functionality. Hopefully the next iteration of the iphone will improve on this.

[markredf150]

If you're coming to Sprint, I suggest getting the HTC Hero or the Samsung Moment. I have a feeling that the Hero is going to be one heck of a phone. The Pre, I tried to like it but every time I played with it it was ungodly sluggish. But if you've done your research and you feel the Pre is right for you, go and do it. Like this article said, everyone should buy what they need and what fits their usage better. But good luck with it!

[frozenjello]

I'd say 90% of my iPhone use is surfing mobile versions of web sites such as NY Times and Wall Street Journal. Like this article's author, I don't use the NY Times app, but I do have a method of caching. I just go to the mobile web site in Safari, TOUCH AND HOLD the hyperlink of the story that I want to read, a menu appears, I choose "Open in New Page", and the story opens in a new web page. I then go back to the first page and repeat this process for other articles I want to read. Safari's limit is just 8 pages, but that is enough for my commute. Often, the articles are rather long and thus require a lot of scrolling, so the iPhone's large and super-responsive capacitive touch screen is perfectly suited for this task. I tried reading these articles on a friend's BlackBerry and found the "half-height" screen and trackball scrolling to be a less pleasurable experience. So, I bought the right device for my desired usage. If instead my habits involved frequent emailing or texting, I would have bought a BlackBerry for the typing speed.

[Stoli6]

Good article, am hearing more and more such stories - I never left my Bold since I mainly use it for work and type a lot on it. My battery charging used to be an issue until I got a couple charging pods for it to sit in on my desk and bedside table. http://tinyurl.com/lrkfpb but you can get them cheaper on eBay. I love the Bold!

[stepyourgameup]

Long Live the Crackberry!

[PCUser2008]

Man you guys are just not made for the iphone. I can't even think of getting a BB because of how much the plan costs. I do not have a problem finding contacts at all, and it seem to notice that it takes little or no time at all. I think that he was complaining about an iphone with non-3.0/3.1 software.

[The_Tru7h]

The iPhone data plan costs the exact same as the Blackberry Internet Service on ATT.

[draystl]

Actually, the Blackberry data service, I believe, is $45/month. the iPhone is $30.

[Xopher129]

The Blackberry personal data plan is $30/month, just like the iPhone plan. No difference in price between the two.

[BruceLawrence]

I'm using the Curve 8900 with TMobile and pay 30 a month for unlimited data plan. Not unlimited minutes... unlimited data. Web, pics, video, text etc.

Love the phone.

[subie09lega]

I agree with most of what is said here, but the calendar and lack of built-in task app the most aggravating. I've had an iPhone for two years now and I still use an old iPaq for calendar and tasks. I'm trying to wean myself off the dinosaur. I found a task app that I like but the calendar system is cumbersome. It's a lot of eyecandy with the rolling slot machine number selection. Why can't I just get a number pad to type it rather than scrolling through to find it? Annoying.

[Mr. Dee]

I couldn't read everything, but I get your point.

[Apere006]

Very good, well thought out article. However it seems like you were not using 3.0. I going to try to give solutions for your complaints, not to try to convince (I think you made the right choice for yourself) but to clear it up with anyone consider these two phones. It is pretty clear that a lot of the problems you had come from your perspective as an experienced Blackberry owner and looking for all the benefits you had with you blackberry. This is valid for you but not for most people, which you did say. For example, I don't think the majority of people are going to learn hot keys for many Bold applications. I doubt the many of my friends uses ctrl-v much less ctrl-a, when they are using their PCs. Most of these issues can be at least parital solve by 3.0, the 3GS, or jailbreaking. In the end however, the iphone is just a fun phone that you can do work related stuff on and the bold is a business phone that you can do fun stuff on. Also, If you don't care about about mobile browsing then a bold might be better for you.
General Usability
"I am literally 3x faster typing on the Bold"
Typing is usually slower on a touchscreen for people that are experienced with both touchscreen and keypad but it usually very close with most people. Horizontal mode does really limit how much you can see of what your typing. However, having a touchscreen gives you a lot of flexibility. You have a full number pad when you are dialing and it disappears when you don't need it. Also your keyboard is slient, with no moving parts that can break, and you can type easily with one had. It also much easier to find symbols that you need to type.
"BlackBerry UI is incredibly fast to use once you learn it, as you do a desktop OS. The lengthy menus and the amount of customization possible are intimidating at first, but you quickly realize they contain everything you could conceivably want"
Like I said, most people do not get very experienced with most of the application on their phones and in this case the "easy" interface is better. Also if you want to be able to do things quickly, the 3Gs gets things done MUCH faster. Apps open almost instantly and web pages load so quickly. The web browser is still slower then newish computers but it really is in the same ballpark. I much rather browse on my 3Gs then on a 6-8 year old desktop. Also with the 3.0 update you can search for apps so you can launch any app pretty quickly.
"Finger prints, ear wax and general grime on the iPhone screen, it's constantly dirty and this both mars visibility as well as touch gestures." This is greatly improved with the 3Gs or with a $2 anti-glare screen protector.
"It's tricky to hold to your ear for more than a couple of minutes - too thin at the edge, and slippery" Never really had this issue, I guess it feels slippery but doesn't reall slip in my hands but regardless a cheap case will solve that.
"No expandability" legit issue but 16 gb is way more then enough for me.
"Poor battery life" The 3Gs' battery life is as as good or better the any 3g phone I have seen or read about. I get a legit 5:45-6 hours of usage on 3g with it.
"iPhone camera is very slow to activate" 3Gs completely solves this and greatly improves the camera.
"It's not that good of an iPod: Using it while it's locked is a pain. Using it in a pocket is a pain. " Don't really understand this you can play, pause, control the volume, skip forward and back while it is locked. Also the stock 3Gs headphones can do all of that and you don't have to take it out of you pocket.
Email
"I have to unlock the iPhone on to see if I've got a new email" Not if you jailbreak, there are serval was it see if you have new mail, sms, upcoming meeting, missed calls, etc on you lockcreen.
"No auto-text/shortcuts to speed up repetitive message elements" also great options for this if you jailbreak that work everywhere.

Calendar
"Entering new appointments takes way too many steps due to the iPhone's modal paned UI approach" Several ToDo apps can sync over the air to your iphone calendar. Adding an appointment to my calendar is as easy as the todo app makes it and happens automatically if you already had it as something to do.
"No week view." I prefer list view
"Can't send comments along with appointment acceptance/decline notices" Very few phones allow for accept decline natively. This seems overly obscure.
Phone
"On the iPhone dialing a specific contact is rather tedious" Used to be worse but with 3.0 you can just search for a contact from the springboard. Also if you jailbreak, irealquicksms lets you call and text anyone quickly while you are in another app.
"Muting the phone while on a conf call" ? it is a one press away if I understand what you are talking about but yes you do have to look at the screen

[robotaholic]

the bold has a faster processor than the iphone by the way - lolllllllllllllll

[grayforge]

Is the author using an iPhone 3GS?

I ask because of the fingerprint comment. The coating or type of glass or whatever it is on the 3GS that minimizes smudges and finger prints is amazing. Not only does it resist getting smudged in the first place, any grime on the display comes off way easier than the previous models. A couple swipes on your shirt and it's gone. The old ones required some animated rubbing before getting completely clean.

[ldater]

I haven't used an iPhone, but my son did and got rid of it after 2 months...couldn't type on it. I have a Bold and feel it's the best all-around device on the market at present. Not perfect by any stretch...but the best I've seen.

If I were more concerned with web browsing and music, I would definitely consider an iPhone. But for a well-rounded device that does everything pretty darn good and that is an awesome business device on top of that, it'd be hard to beat. When you take into account how well it does with plain old communications (e-mail is unmatched, great SMS/MMS, IM options, BBM, and of course, outstanding voice quality) and include the robust contacts and calendar apps, the Bold FTW. For a device that I use combined for both business and personal use, I can't think of anything else that I'd rather use.

The keyboard is the best there is, it has WiFi and 3G, a serviceable music player, decent camera (with flash), video player (with zoom), gorgeous screen (seriously!), and outstanding sound quality from the built in speakers. Unfortunately it has far too little native memory and a weak browser (though I love the free Opera Mini), and not nearly as many apps as iPhone (although there are still thousands and growing).

The iPhone definitely excels at certain things, but I believe now that the novelty has worn off, people are starting to see the warts.

[michaelalanjones1]

There is no comparison; the Bold outclasses the iPhone, for business and home. My wife has an iPhone, and I have a Bold. I can do tons of stuff all at the same time, while streaming music from Slacker or Pandora, and downloading my RSS and Podcasts, all simultaneously. If you just want to look at pictures or smear your fingers around on the web, or really do only ONE THING AT A TIME, then get an iPhone. The Bold can multi-task, just like every computer in the world, except the iPhone.

The keyboard is why I chose the Bold over the iPhone. The Bold's keyboard is not just for typing; iPhone users always say that you will get used to typing on a virtual keyboard. Yes, but you will never have the ability to push the N key for next, or P for Previous, or H for Home, or Space for page down. It took me a long time to memorize those keys, but once I did, I can fly on the Bold. Heck, there are still some keyboard shortcuts I don't know on the Bold. Shifting, symbols and numbers is also a pain on the iPhone - the virtual keyboard is not the same as a real keyboard. And editing text on the iPhone is ridiculous -- you have to hold your finger down until the magnifying glass comes down, then slowly slide the cursor over to what you want to edit. I can use the Bold's trackball to jump right to where I am editing.

Recently, I was writing a really long Word document, on my Bold. I typed it all on the keyboard, but I still had to respond to email and do other things, during the day. When I got an email, I would just hold the Bold's BB menu button down to go to email, read it and come right back in seconds. Can you even do Word docs on an iPhone? If you can, I am sure you have to buy an app to do it. If you wanted to do that on an iPhone, it would be: Close your Word editor all the way down, open your email app, read your mail, close your email app all the way down, and re-open your Word Editor, every time, all day long.

The iPhone is sexy, yes, and it is fun, but try to use it as your personal computer for a day, and see what happens. I tried to use my wife's iPhone and got sick of hitting the close button all the time, and re-opening everything again and again.

Oh, and the last straw? No iPhone sync with Outlook, on the iPhone, without iTunes. This is a deal-breaker for me and any of the thousands of people where I work. Why? iTunes cannot be installed at our company - it is forbidden. Period. I doubt you can install iTunes if you work for the government/military, either -- (Hey! Does anybody know if the military/gov forbid iTunes?).

The Outlook sync functionality should be removed from iTunes, Apple - hint, hint.

[hkchao]

One other key feature that the author forgot was extremely customizable profiles!

Along the same lines as being able to just look at the device to know if a message came through by looking at the light, you can also customize the sound for each email account.

Most iPhone users fail to realize that the Bold is a much more than adequate media device, and they have been trained by the simplicity of the iPhone, so they dismiss other devices when they can't figure it out in 10 seconds or less. With simplicity comes simplicity, with complexity comes power.

Thank you author for capturing why I made the choice I did. I will send this to all my close minded, nose in the air, and annoyingly naive iPhone friends.

I will forever stay with a BlackBerry. I doubt the iPhone will ever compete with the BlackBerry at a productivity level, since it needs to cater to the lowest common denominator. Thank you Apple for coming out with the iPhone; you have made all other hardware phone companies rethink and drastically improve their consumer level features.

Do I think Apple will ever reach the same level of productivity as the BlackBerry? Never. Do I think BlackBerry will ever achieve the same level of media capabilities as the iPhone? Yes, in fact, media feature to media feature it's practically there, and excels in certain respects. The future is much brighter for RIM because of the iPhone. For that, I am thankful, and a proud BlackBerry user.

[thaisurfer]

I find it difficult to put music from my macbook into my new blackberry, i am don't remember exactly the model but it is one of the latest ones with optical mouse instead of the ball. I am not sure how I am supposed to put musing on blackberry, take the card out and insert it like a normal card using a card reader. I am disappointed with that.

I am also just a new switcher from iphone, I still like iphone but must agree that from my limited blackberry experience (2 weeks) it is very business friendly, more so than iphone.

[ehababoud]

i agree with this whole article, i have a blackberry curve (i prefer it to the bold's huge size) and i had a choice with that or the iphone as an upgrade from o2-UK and, although i complained about speed it turns out that iphones have the same issue, along with other phones too. i love this phone and its so easy and so fast to do so much. even the media player is far better than any ipod media player or iphone one, i'd even argue that its better than itunes on a laptop with headphones stuck in. one thing bad though, headphones with a mic are rare and expensive for blackberry, not so much an issue though i guess, seeing as i don't use my headphones for calling. theme is completely customisable too unlike the iphone one where there's a limited set of stuff to change. also hotkeys on the side of the blackberry are essential in my everyday use. the list is endless - the iphone is a great fasion accessory and a great tool for adding so many things in one device, along with its very easy usability and the crazy number of apps available i see its appeal but i probably won't get it till it upgrades again (And my contract for this phone runs out late next year lol).

blackberry for me :-)

[Iceman1979js]

Quoting hkchao,

Most iPhone users fail to realize that the Bold is a much more than adequate media device, and they have been trained by the simplicity of the iPhone, so they dismiss other devices when they can't figure it out in 10 seconds or less. With simplicity comes simplicity, with complexity comes power.

This is exactly the iphones intent. A lot of users need simplicity and intuitiveness not power with a learning curve. Why is windows so popular? Is windows the most powerful? I would bet a lot of people would say no (and I would probably agree) yet the windows platform would be the choice over say a lynux machine for the general public.

If you are an advanced user then maybe more power with a learning curve is the right choice for you. iPhone may not be the right device for every person so defining what you need to do with a mobile device will help you better select the device that is right for you.

I personally don't carry around an iPhone (yet), I have a windows mobile device and could probably write my own book on the issues I have with it. One of the many issues I have is the keyboard. Some of the buttons are starting to fail on me and the device is not even that old of a device. When you have moving parts they will end up failing on you, this is one advantage of the virtual keyboard IMO.

I could be wrong but I don't think Apple was expecting iPhone to be a huge contender in the business world. I would hazard a guess that the selling to the general consumer market over the business market when it comes to phones would yeild more profit.

My appologies to the author of this article but I have to say this...
One look at the iPhone, it's commercials, where in the market Apple is a huge contender, and what (i think) Apple is most popular for would tell you exactly the type of consumers they are targeting.

Blackberry's initial target was the business professional and more recently has been competing in the consumer market. Of course they are going to work better in a work environment. Blackberry has had a much longer time to R/D the product from that aspect and streamline it to work well for what it was design for.

Why then would you purchase an iPhone and expect it to perform like a work horse in a business environment? Thats like buying a weed eater and mowing your lawn with it, getting frustrated and going back to the riding lawn mower. I think this is a prime example of adequately defining what your needs are and then buying a device that best meets those needs.

JMO