For the past eight months I've been an iPhone user and during that time I've kept notes on the things that stood out most when comparing the iPhone to the BlackBerry. This post is a compilation of those notes.
I was a dedicated and happy BlackBerry user for close to five years prior to switching to the iPhone. I decided against jumping at the first iPhone for two big reasons: it was an entirely new device and I was already very happy with my BlackBerry.
When the iPhone 3G was released and I had heard reports of near-100% satisfaction from current iPhone owners, I decided I couldn't wait any longer. Two big motivating factors were having a camera phone (I was using a Blackberry 8700g at the time) and the ability to carry my music on my phone and get rid of my iPod. I hate carrying more than three things with me wherever I go (wallet, keys, phone).
Important BlackBerry email features that are missing from the iPhone
Being an avid email user, I immediately noticed several features missing from the iPhone:
- Mark as Read (without opening the email)
- Mark Prior Messages Read
- Search
- Copy and Paste (anywhere!)
Save as DraftEdit: A friend pointed out that a Save as Draft feature exists, and he's right. They must have added this in a software update, because it definitely wasn't there when I got the phone!
The above missing features are why I still steer business class users (at least those who intend to use their phone for receiving and replying to large volumes of email) away from the iPhone. It's just not ready and it can't compete with the refined email features of the BlackBerry. I've definitely changed my email habits and I reply to fewer emails from my phone than I did with the BlackBerry.
Touchscreen Interface
While contemplating switching to the iPhone, the on-screen keyboard was my biggest worry. However, when I tried a friends' iPhone I was pleasantly surprised that software does a very good job of correcting any mistakes made while typing fast using the on-screen Qwerty keyboard. Although lacking the tactical feel of a real keyboard, it does its job exceptionally well for a touchscreen interface. Still, typing more than a few sentences is uncomfortable and the lack of saving an email as a draft makes typing long emails risky (the need to reference another email for information, etc.).
The all-touch interface was easy to get used to and it still amazes me how intuitive it is, even for the technically-challenged who give it a try. But the quirks that seem to come with every touch interface are still there. For example, to unlock the phone you need to press and slide a button across the bottom of the screen. Most of the time this works fine, but sometimes the interface will mysteriously be unresponsive and nothing will happen.
Heat-sensitive Touch Interface
The iPhone implements the same heat-sensitive technology as the iPods to prevent accidental key presses by anything but your skin. Most of the time this is really helpful for preventing accidental calls, but when your hands get really cold (shoveling snow, skiing/snowboarding, etc), the temperature of your fingers can actually drop below what the iPhone is expecting and suddenly you can't even use the phone!
Applications
One of the strongest points for the iPhone has been the amazing success of the AppStore. The store is integrated with the iPhone and applications can be purchased and downloaded right from the phone. With over 10,000 applications there's an application for almost anything. Some of the games are simply amazing and the huge variety of games means there is sure to be something fun for everyone.
With the BlackBerry, finding new applications was a nightmare (and finding a good quality, free applications was nearly impossible).
In Summary
In recent comment on HN, I wrote this comparison summary between the iPhone and the Blackberry:
As a former 5-year, very satisfied Blackberry user who switched to the iPhone 3G last June, I have this to say about the comparison:
For business use that requires lots of replying to email, management of large volumes of email, copy/paste functionality, and the possibility of integration with existing Enterprise systems, the Blackberry is a must.
If you mostly just need to read email and only occasionally reply, you have a moderate volume of email (< 30 per day), and you are more interested in a device you can have fun with on the train and use as a replacement for your iPod, then iPhone is perfect. The apps available on the iPhone are truly killer. Real, playable games that you can fully enjoy. Also, web browsing on the iPhone is beautiful -- sometimes I find myself using it in front of my laptop! I've convinced both my boss and my manager NOT to get an iPhone and to instead upgrade their phones to either the BB Curve or Bold. They both thanked me afterward when they realized just how much they relied on easy email reply and the ability to "mark as read" multiple messages (come on iPhone!). The iPhone is definitely a more media-centric device, whereas the Blackberry has been refined for the specific needs of business users.
Nice analysis, I agree. I have a blackberry, and for essentially the reason you point out (incredibly superior email) I have kept it.
I also would note that there is a huge difference in typing speed (from what I’ve seen) even though typing on the iphone is pleasant enough. I’ve had multiple iPhone users argue with me that they can type faster than I can. I politely disagree and say perhaps everyone’s different, but a couple have insisted in having “type offs”
You can guess the results. My blackberry slaughters them. The iPhone is a nice, balanced, overall device. My blackberry is never used for music, games, etc – it’s only used for typing email. Of course it’s better at that single function, which is why I still keep it.
Yeah, I think typing on a real keyboard will always be faster than typing on an on-screen keyboard. But since I only read most of the email on my iPhone, and rarely need to respond from my phone, this limitation was easy to accept.
For me, having a single device that could play my music, take pictures, play great games, and browse the web beautifully far outweighed having a device that was simply great at email. 🙂
The other big thing I forgot to mention was that around the same time I was contemplating the iPhone 3G, I started religiously using OmniFocus for all my todo’s and projects. When they released an iPhone version shortly after the iPhone 3G came out, it was a must have.
That’s true, I have been considering leaving the BB for the iPhone when I see the cool applications (and to develop applications!).
I currently use Outlook + Jello Dashboard for my GTD set up, but it is frustrating that I don’t have solid web integration. The RememberTheMilk blackberry sync app gave me a lot of problems. I have my calendar and contacts with GMail, if they would add tasks I would be set and would dump Outlook. I am not sure how solid the iPhone tasks RTM integration is, but I would suspect it would be better.
Still knowing my contacts are in the cloud, on my blackberry and locally backed up in outlook (which is *then* backed up on 2 mirrored hard drives) is also relieving in some ways =P
Regarding GMail Tasks, you’re aware they’re working on that, right? 😉
“Mark as Read (without opening the email)
Mark Prior Messages Read
Search
Copy and Paste (anywhere!)”
The first two of these issues don’t make sense to me. I never understood why you would want to mark e-mails as read without opening them, or mark all messages up to a certain point read? Shouldn’t you be attacking this at the source, and getting less e-mail, if you’re not even going to read them anyway? I realize this can be difficult in a business environment, but what’s the significance of marking it as READ, if you have not READ it? I just don’t get it
Search and Copy and Paste, I agree, although even being a pretty heavy e-mail user, I haven’t missed these much at all going from BlackBerry -> iPhone.
I’m not sure if you’re using BES or BIS, but another important thing the iPhone adds for me is true two-way e-mail sync. Sure, with IMAP, BIS tries, but e-mails were showing up as new on my BlackBerry for hours after I read them on a computer, and I found the whole disconnect really ridiculous from a device that purports itself to be such a God-like e-mail manager.
Overall, I’m much happier with e-mail on my iPhone, not being on a BES system myself.
As a server administrator I get a lot of notification type messages. Often messages simply confirming that something was done (backups, security scans, etc). I also run my own web hosting business and get new account, canceled account, and payment notifications. Most of the time I don’t even need to read the messages because the subject tells me everything I need to know. Having a “Mark as Read” and “Mark Prior Messages Read” feature was extremely helpful in saving time.
The “Copy and Paste” feature was extremely helpful because in the event that I needed to reply to an email with information contained in another email (login details with cryptic passwords for example), being able to copy text and paste it into the new email made responding to such emails possible away from my computer. With the iPhone I don’t even bother responding until I get to my laptop, which results in taking longer to respond to certain emails.
“Mark as read” isn’t used to mark messages we haven’t read – it’s to mark messages we’ve already read on our computer.
This is a HUGE inconvenience.
When looking for a new toy a few months back, my boss suggested that I grab an iPhone, as it fit all of my requirements (something resembling a full keyboard, readily-available SSH client), but tends to run about half the cost of the toy that I wanted, a Nokia e90.
It took about three seconds of looking at me and my desk, both covered in the ichor-like substance that is the mixture of server goo and questionably-bathed geek, to realize why that was a bad idea. Even if I weren’t a slob, I just can’t stand touchscreens. For what it’s worth, that also knocked the G1 out of the running.
I ended up finding a Nokia 9500 on the cheapy cheap, and I’m pretty sure that I’m going to marry it, if it will have me … if only for the fact that it has an ESC key.
Using SSH on the iPhone is a nightmare. On the BlackBerry it was at least usable, but on the iPhone it’s horribly slow due to the various keys you need to press to get to commonly used keys like the dash and forward slash.
The Nokia e90 looks really sweet. I’ve actually never had a phone with a flip-out, or slide-out, keyboard. For the longest time I couldn’t stand touchscreens either, but when I tried the iPhone I was so impressed that I figured it was time to learn a new interface.