Okay, I said it and yes, I mean it: the Blackberry Bold dominates over the iPhone, for me at least.
Here are five reasons why, in no particular order of importance:
1.) Text messaging/e-mail: Hands down, it’s way easier to type a text message or e-mail in the Bold. I’ve had the iPhone for months now and I have still not mastered the keyboard. I still don’t understand why Apple has a horizontal keyboard when you are typing in the browser but not for e-mail or text. Even then, it’s still not a smooth experience.
2.) No delay: The Bold has ZERO delay going between different applications (i.e. e-mail to browser, phonebook to calendar, etc.). The iPhone has a slight delay and I hate waiting. The Bold is efficient and I can get things done quickly.
3.) Camera and video: The Bold camera rocks. It has a two mega-pixel camera with a built-in flash. Not to mention that it’s very easy to snap a photo, open an e-mail, attach the photo and send. It literally took me 15 seconds for that process, and the picture quality is quite awesome. The video camera is also a nice feature to have that I currently cannot enjoy with the iPhone.
4.) MMS: Need I say more?
5.) Phone Quality: Here is what I don’t understand. Both the Bold and iPhone are on the AT&T network, yet my calls on the iPhone ALWAYS get dropped. I have never had a call dropped on the Bold and I take a gang-load of conference calls, everyday.
Do I regret buying the iPhone? Yes, kinda. I think the only reason I bought it was for Twitter and Facebook (and well … this awesome Sniper application/game that I really enjoy playing).
I probably should have just bought the iTouch to satisfy my Internet/social/geeky behaviors. Oh well, lesson learned, $300 later.
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BREEEEEEETO. How much for the leetle device? I’ll buy your iPhone so I can jailbreak it and use it on t-mobile, then I’ll write about it for ENT 2.0 and DN. What cha think? $50?
Actually this gets to the heart of the issue, as I was explaining to a friend who HATES her BB Bold and wants to ditch it for an iPhone…I told her to not be so hasty. I’m a happy iPhone owner, but the interface is (to be polite) idiosyncratic…so you either bond with it or you never will. It’s kind of like learning a foreign language…it takes time and patience, and sometimes you have to find the language that you can get into.
Can we start the bidding at $50 for the I Phone? Do I hear 50? 50 here, 50 here, 50…
Michael, even though we can’t agree on the glasses :), we can agree on phones.
I agree a lot with your points, but would extend them further here: http://www.digitalnomads.com/2009/02/03/blackberry-bold-my-business-cloud-workhorse
Phones are so personal and I am very glad that choices exist out there that meet the needs of many different types of people. Without competition, there isn’t innovation, and without innovation, we wouldn’t have these great choices.
Can’t wait to see if the Pre’ lives up to its billing.
Texting / email is actually very easy on the iPhone. Don’t be precise; that is the secret. In fact, I don’t try to hit the letters - I just get near them. And when you’re adding a personal pronoun, capitalize the first letter. And most importantly remember to use the force. I’ve listened to Podcasts where Blackberry users state they can actually type faster in the iPhone once they trust it than they could on their blackberry. Apple is adding landscape keyboard to all their apps in iPhone 3.0. I won’t use it, however, since I find the portrait keyboard to be easier to use. My muscle memory isn’t used to that wide spread found in landscape keyboard mode.
MMS is also in iPhone 3.0.
Apple does a fantastic job at following the whole product strategy. It’s not about what goes into their products … it’s about what’s NOT going into their products. They were able add “augmented product” features to the smartphone market in a way no other vendor could and consequently bought themselves a 2 year runway ahead of the competition. That gave them ample time to add “expected product” features later. In case anyone isn’t familiar with this thinking, a vendor cannot charge for “expected product” features but they can charge for augmentation. In fact, expected product features are a cost to the company. Think about this for a while. It take serious vision and discipline to actually pull this off. I don’t know many other companies than Apple that has the guts to do it.
iPhone 1.0 didn’t have copy/paste, 3G, GPS, stereo bluetooth, zoom lens, MMS, video, physical keyboard, etc but yet the market went crazy for it. While the market has been trying to catch up to the augmentation Apple introduced (nice screen, touch, pinch, apps, TV to go) they’ve also tried to punctuate the need for bunch of missing expected product features (MMS, copy/paste, bluetooth stereo, GPS, etc, etc). While competitors are furiously trying to reach parity with the latest augmentation, Apple’s able to quietly and calmly add the missing expected product features.
The challenge is who next will come up with the great augmentation that will force us all to spend our hard earned money.
Another BlackBerry user here to add my $0.02. It’s the features.
Unlocking:
Today, I called AT&T and got the unlock code for my BlackBerry Bold. And they gave it to me, just like that. Now I can take my BB Bold abroad and use it with with other carriers. Cheaper. Try that with an iPhone!
Tethering:
The new iPhone OS has tethering support. But if you’re a US customer, they block you. More dumb restrictions from Apple and AT&T. With my BlackBerry, I have no such limitations. Anywhere I can get a signal, I can use my BlackBerry as a bluetooth modem for my laptop.
I admire the iPhone’s interface and the wide selection of apps, but I can’t put up with the arbitrary feature restrictions. If you’re a nomad, you *need* an unlocked phone, and you *need* tethering.
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by lokesh / July 22, 2009
Thanks for this article. This is very usefull for all users. I am using the unlocked mobile & its also working good. I bought the unlock code from http://www.unlocking4u.com/ This website can provide the code for the GSM mobile and for the iphone we can get the code from service provider./
by mukesh / July 27, 2009
I think compare to iphone blackberry is the best. & the reasons for blackberry bold & iphone u provided is very nice. But both the mobiles u cannot easily unlock it. But on other mobiles like nokia, lg, samsung, etc., we can unlock through online & i found the free code from http://www.unlock-free.com/