Blackberry vs. iPhone: One Technoman’s Experience
By Reggie · August 7, 2008
It may go with saying that I’m one of those individuals who waited outside AT&T for my new iPhone. But this was not just a simple switch from one technology to another. My Blackberry has been a godsend over the years. I truly loved the mobile device. Email and calendar couldn’t have been easier. The device had always been stable. But what was it that made me want to switch? Before I answer that, let me back peddle a bit!
Luckily NikNik got the iPhone at the same time!
Luckily for me, NikNik and I got our phones at the same time. Although mine had terrible reception from the start. But the issue was strange; I would go from 5 bars to no service very quickly. When I compared it with NikNik’s, the difference was night and day. Her iPhone had great reception. I immediately went to AT&T to let them know that I had a defective phone. However the salesman at the counter told me it was a bad SIM card. So he added a new SIM card and sent me off on my way. Within 5 minutes I knew my iPhone was not fixed. I still had “NO SERVICE!” So now I’m back at AT&T for the 3rd time in as many days so we could take a closer look at my iPhone reception problems. This time the sales associate tells me that I will need to purchase another iPhone and I can get reimbursed when it arrives. They’ll simply swap devices. But because of the current demand it may take 21 days. This got me a little annoyed, so I asked the sales guy to do something for me since I was without a reasonable working phone. He replied that I could buy another phone and return it when the iPhone arrived. (Great…let me buy 3 phones so 1 can have one working?! ) I didn’t like this suggestion much. I decided instead to get through the next few weeks without a properly working phone. It was challenging, to say the least. Many calls went to voicemail. But that all changed late last week when my new iPhone arrived; now I’m happy to say the iPhone works perfectly. I now have great reception.
Although with my phone working, my immediate thoughts went out to other consumers who may have a similarly defective phone and not even know it. If I could not have compared my phone with Nik’s I would have thought the iPhone reception was weak in general! But that’s not the case, once working the iPhone has been an amazing and innovative change in mobile smartphone technology. Which brings me to my last thought, is it right for you?
Do I recommend iPhone or Blackberry technology for real estate agents?
This is a tough question because of so many different personality types out there. To start if you are a teckie real estate agent there is probably no stopping you…as a matter of fact you probably already own the smartphone. Although if you are looking for stability and time tested solution the blackberry is still a great vehicle for you. You may want to wait a few more months for demand to die out and then you can easily move into the device. And if the unfortunate should happen like you purchase a defective phone at least you will not being waiting 21 days for a new one to be shipped to you.
Things I love about the iPhone:
- It’s beautiful
- Huge screen w/ accelerometer
- Real Internet with 3G (where available…seriously)
- Push email with Microsoft Exchange support (crucial)
- Convergence of multiple devices (laptop, camera, iPod, phone)
- Multi-Touch….LOVE THIS!
- Wi-Fi
- The app store
- Perfect convergence between work life and personal
Things I loved about my Blackberry Curve:
- Keyboard
- Durable case
- Camera w/Flash
- Light-weight
- Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES)
Below is a basic matrix for comparison between the iPhone and the Curve.
(Note soon Blackberry will release their BOLD which would be a better comparison.)
|
|
|
|
| Price w/Contract | $299 | $99 |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 2.4 in x 0.5 in x 4.6 in | 2.4 in x 0.6 in x 4.2 in |
| Weight | 4.7 oz | 3.9 oz |
| Display type | 3.5 in | 2.5 in TFT active matrix |
| Max resolution | 480 x 320 | 320 x 240 |
| Talk time | Up to 600 min | Up to 240 min (Varies by Model) |
| Memory | 16 GB | 64 MB Flash |
| Service provider | AT&T | T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Verizon1 |
| Data services | SMS, E-Mail, Voice mail | MMS, SMS, WWW, E-Mail |
| Wireless Interface | IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR | Varies by carrier. See below. |
| Built-in devices | Camera, Digital Player | Camera, Digital Player 2 |
| GPS | GPS receiver | GPS receiver 3 |
| Messaging / Data Features | PDF support, Microsoft Word support, Microsoft Excel support | Microsoft Office basic |
1 T-Mobile Curve 8320, AT&T Curve 8310, Sprint Curve 8330, Verizon Curve 8330.
2 T-Mobile Curve 8320 offers IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11g, Bluetooth 2.0 while the AT&T Curve 8310, Verizon Curve 8330 and Sprint Curve 8330 offer only Bluetooth 2.0.
3 Curve 8310 offers GPS receiver. The T-Mobile Curve 8320, Verizon Curve 8330 and Sprint Curve 8330 do not offer GPS.
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Great post!
I have been toying with the idea of going iphone. My current device is the Moto q9h with ATT. I started with the treo 750 3g in early 2007. Picked this device because it was one of the first 3g smartphones on ATT and it would soon become Supra ekey compatible and this would allow me to carry one less device. I had reception issues from day one and more dropped calls than one could imagine. I swapped the phone 3 times with ATT and the issue never went away but I stuck with it for 6 months before selling it on ebay after realizing I was missing business b/c of this crappy phone.
I had made the determination that I needed a phone with more solid reception and reliability even though I would have to go back to an extra lockbox device. The Moto Q9h is perfect! Great reception, LONG battery life, 3g and so on. The only drawback is the small screen and no touch screen. Great for outlook exchange and so on.
My reason for thinking about going iphone is that the ease of use of the internet and large touch screen. The issue is that our MLS in Atlanta is only IE compatible. I called to complain and as of yesterday I am beta testing an iphone/smartphone designed web site for our MLS. My only concern is I am worried about battery life, reception and overall reliability of the phone. Also, will I have to pay more to use exchange server?
-Matt
Reggie,
Now that the iPhone offers Microsoft Exchange support my only real reservation in switching from Blackberry is the loss of the keyboard. How is that working out for you? Perhaps it would actually be beneficial as I’d have to pull over to respond to email.
While I certainly understand the appeal of the iphone I have to speak up for the BlackBerry for the rest of the non-technie real estate world.
First, while your chart says that iPhone has much longer talk time, that is not what I’m hearing anecdotally about the new version of the iPhone. I hard that it dies within a couple of hours and that it is SIGNIFICANTLY worse than the old version of the iPhone. I have heard many people share similar stories to yours. They have returned their new iPhone three times in the last three weeks and are still having trouble with them. It seems like Apple released this new version too quickly feeling the pressure of the upcoming release of the BlackBerry Bold and other exciting new phones.
Email Usability - while both phones allow you to send email, the usability on the iPhone is terrible versus the BlackBerry. I have very small fingers and for the life of me I cannot send an email or even a text message, for that matter easily from the iPhone. If you use email on your phone regularly, The buttons on either the Curve or the 8800 World phone series are both great. I have had both. I would highly recommend a BlackBerry vs. an iPhone. We have both types of phones in our family so I use both of then often.
Push Email - you didn’t mention that BlackBerry also has push email. In fact, they invented the concept. They have the most secure and efficient method for pushing email on the market today.
Do you have any word on how the Blackberry Bold may stack up?
Great comparison. As a Treo 700wx user I can’t speak to either of them. While talking to a Verizon rep the other day he mentioned the Blackberry Thunder which they are hoping to ship to stores Decemberish (according to him). Supposed to be the “touchscreen” Blackberry http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/9356.html. Will be curious how it compares? The fact it is a Verizon product is the first step in the right direction.
My Reply…
Nice to see the comparison between the iPhone and the Blackberry. I have been musing over the iPhone since it was first announced last year, and I got interested again with the 3G version this year. I have been into the Apple store several times now playing with the iPhone, trying to get the keyboard to type what I am trying to type. With my Blackberry I am comfortable typing out several e-mails a day at a good speed. With the iPhone I could not even type one sentence without making several mistake. I know my fingers are not the smallest in the world, and perhaps with practice I would improve, but for now I am staying with my Blackberry. Too bad, because I really love all the other iPhone features, and I do like the MobileMe service, which would integrate very well with my MacBook Air. Perhaps “v3″ of the iPhone will hit a home-run if the soft keyboard can be sorted out.
George
Reggie,
Nice job. How did you know I was contemplating changing. I’ve been a smartphone user from the beginning. I’ve had them all. I currently have a Verizon BB 8830 which I love, expect for the lame internet browsing (small screen). Being a former Palm Smartphone user, I miss the thousands of app available. BB seems to have limited apps. The iPhone seems to have many apps and many more are being added everyday. That says a lot for the popularity of the phone. My biggest concern is leaving the awesome customer service and coverage of Verizon. My other concern is the stability of BB. It seems the iPhone has had some problems, however I would guess these will be worked out eventually. One that has been bothering me about Verizon is the way they strip most phones capabilities to promote their own services. That really makes me made. It’s a hard decision. The other thing for people to consider is that BB is coming out with a new phone called Thunder which will be a touchscreen and will have WiFi. Google it and check it out. It too is suppose to come out sometime 3rd quarter. I will probably wait till the end of this year although it will be hard. I love new phones. Thanks for the comparison.
Overall, I love my iphone (non-3g version). However, I do get glitches. Every update it gets better and better. For the real estate wordpress based blogger, a iphone with the wordpress app is a must (which also still has glitches).
-Brendan
The real big question when deciding which one to go to is “what features are your must haves?”. Too many people make a change because it’s the next fanciest gadget with little thought of productivity or how it will actually change their business.
I like the matrix you provided because I hope it will help people take a closer look on what their needs are and which product can help them with it.
My Reply…
Great post Reggie! Now we need you to do one on hands free Bluetooth devices. They SUCK. Like talking through a tunnel with a speaker the size of a pinhead.
NON LINEAR VOICE MAIL!!!! It’s got to be the best thing about the iPhone. Many others for me as well.
Email is definately far betther than my TREO. I wish I had Video.
Hey Ted,
You are right about this one. I can’t believe I didn’t include it on my list. I love being able to play back messages out of order. Why did it take so long to come up with this powerful way to display voicemails?
Thanks Ted.
To get better telephone reception on the iPhone, turn off the 3G setting under –> General –> Network.
Watch the bars go from 1 to 5! Don’t know the reason, it just works. Maybe a real techie can explain this.
Prices for the BB Bold are looking like it will not be a direct competitor to the iPhone (at least during the early adopters phase). I’m hearing it will be in the $400 range in Canada, making it significantly more than the iPhone and of course it comes with almost no memory.
Bottom line seems to be as an internet device, the iPhone is second to none. As a straight up business tool, nothing tops RIM’s palm candy.
I’m a techie that moved into the real estate industry. I’m not one for hype and held out past the first generation of iPhone waiting for a Blackberry with all the iPhone features, like YouTube and touch screen. It hasn’t come out yet and not the iPhone 2 is here. I did wait for 2 hours a month after it was released to get one and had the same problems as Reggie, lot’s of dropped calls and short battery life. Wait, before I delve into the negatives, there are a lot of positives coming. It seems there are some firmware issues as the iPhone jumps between the 3G and EDGE networks that drain the battery quickly and drop calls as it goes across networks. AT&T told be to go back to the Apple store to replace my phone which I gladly did and continued having some of these issues. The easy solution until a fix comes out: disable 3G networking to increase stability.
On the good side, again, as a technophile, I love the iPhone! Integrating my Exchange email, GPS mapping, camera, YouTube/streaming video, Internet, having the App store and some other cool features make this a great business tool! I also have my iTune library with videos on my iPhone. The platfom is just the beginning as more uses are thought of and applications released.
Blackberry will have a hard time competing with the functionality of the iPhone in future releases since Google Android will be coming online soon and the open source platform will allow for more innovation and uses that are left to the imagination.
Cheers, Derec
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