BlackBerry versus iPhone, anyone?

[Jena Macato]

I've been debating on getting a new phone for a long time now, and I think I'm finally ready. I"ve narrowed it down to the two. Just wondering what everyone's take is on the BlackBerry versus the iPhone? Anybody?

I've had my same prepaid phone w/ the very basics (only voice mail) for about 4 or 5 years now. I basically only use it for business calls and long distance calls, since there is no extra charge for that on my minutes, but rarely make very lengthy long distance calls. I would really like to start being able to check my e-mail from my phone and maybe have some type of calendar doodad in it, nothing more. And I'm not very good at working these high-tech products, so the easier to use the better.

Now, I haven't looked into the cost of service for either phone at all and am totally clueless about that. I think I've heard my techy sister mention she pays $100 a month for her iPhone -- yikes! I have to mention, again, I've had the same prepaid phone for 5 years. I buy a $40 prepaid card at the end of each month to load on my phone and have only went over my $40 limit twice in 5 five years. I'm very, very nervous about my purchase because my monthly phone bill is probably going to double, but now that I'm a CR I guess I deserve it, right?

So I'd love to hear everyone's pros and cons on the phones. Thanks in advance for all that reply!!

[Lisa Moskowitz]

LOL, I think the responses to this question are as heated as Case Catalyst vs. Eclipse software!!!

Personally, I'm a Blackberry user. I have had both the Curve and now the Bold. Love them and recommend Blackberry highly especially for its email function.

[April McMillan, CRR, RPR, CSR]

I'm a Blackberry user myself. I stood in line when the Storm came out (BB's version of the iPhone). Did not like the screen/ keyboard -- you had to press each letter very hard for it to register, and in the end it took longer to create an e-mail or text msg than the keyboard on the Curve that I use now. I love the fact that I get my e-mails (2 mailboxes) on the phone.

Good luck :)

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

I just switched from a BB curve to the palm pre.
I recommend that reporters use BB for 3 reasons.
1- Battery is at least 6 to 8 times better than the iphone and the Pre.
2- BB just works, period (email works and is available at all the times)
3- Keypad. ok, some people will tell you that pecking on a screen (iphone) is great but most people will agree that there is simply no substitution to a full keypad.

Many people dont know that almost all the good apps (google map, Where, infopedia, pendora) that are available on the iphone are in fact available EXACTLY the same way on BB.
Iphone does have 643 fart applications.. such as ifart and many other funny farty names.

Iphone apps are controlled by ATT and apple, they HAVE to approve applications before you can download them.. in fact they just got questioned by the FCC because they blocked Google Voice (available on BB by the way) for unknown reasons.

Google voice is an awesome service where it allows you to route all your numbers into one number (cell phone) and many other feature I dont care to go into.

Iphone is only available by the evil ATT and they are gouging the iphone costumers as long as they can.
BB is available on all carriers, you can get a BB from sprint for $99 unlimited EVERYTHING (minutes, internet, email.. etc)
unlimited everything on the iphone is $150+ (I think)

Palm pre is hands down the coolest bestest phone I have ever used, I have tried the iphone... its cool but has many flaws.
The pre has many flaws as well, it also requires a learning curve.

I am going to get chewed up by iphone users :D (bring it aaaan)

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!

Please google gouging customers and see what the first thing you see.
LOL!

[Quyen]

Big BB fan here. Like you, I narrowed my phone choices to BB or iPhone. The winning factor? I wanted to have a navigator on my phone. I wanted the navigator to TALK. Navigator talks on BB; it does not on iPhone. I absolutely LOVE my navigator! I can't even begin to tell you how many times it has saved me when I've gotten lost, trying to find a depo location. It's important to me to have the navigator talk, because when I'm lost AND trying to read the screen for directions, I'd probably ... crash. I do glance at the screen sometimes, but only when I want to read ahead for the directions. Also, the navigator feature (extra $9.99/mo. by AT&T) also has a directory, so no more 411 calls! Love it! Find anything, anywhere, anytime! I was low on gas and wanted to find the nearest gas station. I went into the directory, typed in "gas station," and it listed a bunch, closest location first, and you can choose "drive to," and it will give you driving directions. Did I tell you I LOOOVE having the navigator on my phone yet? Now I'm fearless of getting lost when driving to depos -- or anywhere else, for that matter!

My friend has an iPhone. I borrowed it to try out texting by touch screen. It took me 10, 15 minutes to try to write ONE SENTENCE. I found it difficult to hit the right letters on the touch screen, and so the process was slow, painful and frustrating. People say it takes getting used to. I know I likely wouldn't have that patience. I know some people who have gotten the iPhone, never got used to the touch screen keyboard and returned it for the BB.

E-mail feature is great! You can have ALL your e-mails go to your BB. I.e., if you have Hotmail, Gmail, AOL, Yahoo, whatever else, you can set them all up to go to your BB. I don't know if you can do that with the iPhone.

BB now has video playing AND recording capabilities. I know the iPhone can play videos, but I don't know if it records. BB has a camera; so does iPhone, as do most phones nowadays. Both have calendar capability.

I learned to use/play with my BB without reading the instruction manual. Iphone instruction manual comes -- SEPARATELY for something like $300 ... or so I've heard, don't know personally.

Uhhh ... that's all I can think of at the moment. :)

HTH!

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Quyen,
Thats correct, the mighty iphone does not, ill repeat, does NOT have a real time navigator GPS system.
It uses the google map step by step GPS.
I wish I can show you how cool the Pre is, you would not believe what you can do with this thing.

The keyboard is awesome, my friend (iphone user, huge mac fanboy) and I both competed to see who can type an SMS faster.
I just got the Pre last week, he had his iphone since it came out.. lets just say I wiped the floor with him.
I finished my sentence while he was pecking on the screen franticly.

yes, you can peck "I iz on my way home" fairly easily but try typing a whole email can be a tedious thing.

BB is the way to go in my opinion.

[Quyen]

Lol, Monti!

I just might take you up on bragging about your Pre to me! I LOVE gadgets! :P

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

Ha! I am sure I will see you soon.
I saw like a month ago, huu?

you know, maybe we can put together a CSRnation SF get together, if we can get 30 people it would be great.
we have over 500 members from SF here on CSRnation, its possible.

we can talk about technologies, get some agencies to join.. etc.

I have to wake up tomorrow at 6am! yikes.
i gots to go.

[Quyen]

Oh, yeah, you can write off a percentage of your cell phone bill for tax purposes, depending upon the percentage of business vs. personal use. :D

[Veronica Kubat]

I REALLY wanted an Iphone. But I absolutely didn't want AT&T. I love Verizon and didn't want to switch. So I chose the Blackberry. I have the touch screen (I can never remember the name of it - Storm or Curve?). The Blackberry does things the Iphone does not do - useful things. The Iphone does things that the Blackberry does not do - fun things; not the most useful for business.

Now, as to whether to get the touch screen Blackberry or the one with the full keyboard and buttons, I find the heat-sensitive touch-screen annoying to use. I'm getting used to it, but I think I would rather have the buttons.

But definitely Blackberry for emails and gps versus Iphone for fun and games. It depends what your focus is. Do you want to use the features for business or the fun stuff? If you just want a phone and don't really anticipate using the gps or emails (I'm not sure if you get emails on the Iphone - probably), then I would get the Iphone for the fun factor. If you want to use the features on the Blackberry for business (I needed email), then Blackberry.

Just be sure to check the fees for the different features and add them all up.

V.

[Jena Macato]

Okay. Hands down, I think the BlackBerry is going to be the winner. I definitely am not going to be looking for any entertaining, game, fun stuff on my cell phone, which it looks like is basically what the iPhone is geared for.

So I'll be heading out to the cellular dealers and see who has the best monthly package deal on Wednesday, and I may be coming home with a new gadget, if I don't go into sticker shock first - LOL.

Thanks all!

[Kelli Combs (admin)]

The beauty of BB is that the only thing you need to worry about is selecting a carrier.
the BB curve and bold are available on all!

you can get the curve for free in many dealers if you sign a contract.