Wow factor
Having braved the queues outside Carphone Warehouse early on a Friday morning, I found myself one of the first owners of the new iPhone 3G by Apple. I love it, it truly is one of the best mobile phones ever made, but past the ‘wow’ factor and ease-of-use, I’m discovering that the iPhone isn’t the direct replacement for my BlackBerry I thought it might be.
Does it work with Exchange now?
The reason I stuck with my BlackBerry during the hype over the original iPhone was it’s lack of ‘full’ support for the Microsoft Exchange email system. First Generation iPhones could ’show’ me my email, but not properly integrate and synchronise with my mailbox. Having heard a rumour that Apple has added this support to the 3G version via the use of Microsoft Activesync, I decided to read up on the other features, get very excited, and eagerly await its release.
Ease of use
The iPhone has been called gimmicky by critics, but since I opened the box I have been very impressed with how Apple have improved upon common mobile phone features and added new ones to create a device that is almost unparalleled when it comes to ease-of-use and practicality. There is always a downside to any technology though and I have found myself reach for my BlackBerry 8800 to do some (seemingly) common tasks that the iPhone can’t handle, with this in mind, I present a comparison of some corporate features which may sway your company’s mobile working one way or the other:
| BlackBerry | iPhone | |
| BlackBerry uses a proper ‘push’ method of delivering your email to the device, so that new messages are received instantly | The iPhone use Microsoft ActiveSync, which does use the same ‘push’ technology, but isn’t as reliable at BlackBerry, you may find yourself having to sync manually when it can’t keep up | |
| Calendar | The BlackBerry Syncs your calendar and offers almost as much functionality as Microsoft Office Outlook | The iPhone does synchronise with your calendar however you cannot send meeting requests to other participants. |
| Contacts, taks, notes | You cannot synchronise your tasks or notes, nor manage folders or setup an Out-of-Office auto reply | |
| Text | Text is entered using a hardware QWERTY keyboard (on the larger devices) you can also select, copy & paste text between different applications | A ’soft’ QWERTY keyboard is in use here, with a predictive text function to automatically correct mistakes. The lack of copy/paste is a big complaint in the iPhone community. |
| Mobile Data | The device can be setup to read Intranet webpages. | You can access Intranet data via a VPN connection |
| Most devices only use an EDGE connection, although this is set to change with the release of the BlackBerry Bold/9000 later this year | The 3G connection is much faster than EDGE, but both can connect to nearby WIFI networks. | |
| Manageability | Many more administrative tasks can be carried out from the server, and policies are available to lock down devices. Third-Party solutions are also available for things such as text message monitoring and GPS tracking. | iPhones can only have the email settings & data wiped remotely. Also, while a BlackBerry can be setup in the middle of nowhere, the iPhone cannot be activated without connecting to iTunes. |
So which should I get?
There are many other considerations to take account of but all-in-all, I’ve found that while the iPhone is a wonderful piece of technology, as a serious corporate device, it’s not quite there yet. The iPhone will be a serious contender in years to come, but until then, anyone considering a mobile solution for business I would still recommend the BlackBerry route.
Ben
One Response to “iPhone vs BlackBerry”
August 21st, 2008 at 9:14 am
The biggest problem I found with the Blackberries was how well they handle attachments. (Badly) Does the iphone beat it in this regard? I imagine the 3g speed would help. The web browser is still rubbish as well on the BB.
The GPS mapping is also pretty good with the iphone and it has hardware acceleration for games and videos
You still have to spend money on a BES server. With the iphone you wouldn’t. Mind you, I always found that having a front end exchange server helps when syncing with phones which is probably even more expensive. Syncing phones on an SBS server isn’t fun.