Switching From BlackBerry - Yay or Nay?

I used to use a black berry a lot.


I like the iPhone a lot better. I find typing to be easier as well too.

Amblinman said:

This brings up another question:

Is there a means to transfer all of your BB contacts over to your iPhone?

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it syncs to address book and outlook just as your bb did. Just sync and go...

I am a longtime blackberry user and while I really like the iphone, but it doesn't handle email nearly as well. I frequently get no content and message not downloaded from server messages on my two pop3 accounts. This is still the case after today's mini update. It is slow opening messages sometimes as it downloads them from the server when you open it.
I like the iphone keyboard and love the web surfing, but for me the email app needs some improvement.

I understand that, aside from Yahoo IMAP IDLE, the most frequently the iPhone checks e-mail is once every 15 minutes? Do BB users find this frustrating, after being used to the much more responsive BIS/BES? I've only played with, but never owned the iPhone. After my short time so far with an 8700g, though, I'm seeing why the term Crackberry™ gets used.

The other thing is that I like better about the BB message system (minor) is that I can look at SMS/MMS, voice mails, etc, alongside e-mails in one inbox while still seeing which one I got very easily.

The iPhone SMS interface runs rings around that of the BlackBerry. There is no comparison. I will say the push e-mail is nicer on BB but I will take the iPhone any day.

mkrishnan said:

I understand that, aside from Yahoo IMAP IDLE, the most frequently the iPhone checks e-mail is once every 15 minutes? Do BB users find this frustrating, after being used to the much more responsive BIS/BES? I've only played with, but never owned the iPhone. After my short time so far with an 8700g, though, I'm seeing why the term Crackberry™ gets used.

The other thing is that I like better about the BB message system (minor) is that I can look at SMS/MMS, voice mails, etc, alongside e-mails in one inbox while still seeing which one I got very easily.

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The iphone interface is much nicer and very easy to use.
The touchscreen kicks ass.
I never had any problems downloading my emails thru my verizon pop3 account. I never got the get no content or message not downloaded from server errors someone posted above. Maybe its not an issue with the phone but with the email server/provider.
You can click on mail and check for mail on the bottom left corner to check for email instantly.
I have my iphone set to check for messages manual whenever I feel like checking my inbox.

Amblinman said:

...

However, I currently use a BlackBerry. Email, texting, and PIM functions are pretty important to me. The iPhone seems to cover all of these, but are there any of you who have used both a BB and the iPhone who would care to comment as to the transition? Do you find the iPhone covers all of your needs?

Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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If PIM functions are important to you, then stay away from the iPhone. The iPhone does not support Outlook categories, does not have a Search function for contacts or calendar events, does not sync notes or todos. Sorry, I love my iPhone, but it ain't a PIM contender by ANY stretch of the imagination.

The potential is certainly there, but serious PIM users, and if you interface with Exchange server at all (for syncronizing calendar events, being able to respond to invites, etc.), then you should not go with an iPhone. You will be very dissapointed.

Canuck4 said:

The iphone interface is much nicer and very easy to use.
The touchscreen kicks ass.
I never had any problems downloading my emails thru my verizon pop3 account. I never got the get no content or message not downloaded from server errors someone posted above. Maybe its not an issue with the phone but with the email server/provider.
You can click on mail and check for mail on the bottom left corner to check for email instantly.
I have my iphone set to check for messages manual whenever I feel like checking my inbox.

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Regarding the pop3 email issue. It isn't the server. One of them is my gmail account that is built in and the other is a work pop3. There are plenty of people with this issue out there. If you google either error message plenty comes up regarding this. Glad you don't have it though.

ZBoater said:

does not sync notes or todos.

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yikes, thats a deal breaker for me right there. i have a BB and i use the missing sync to sync to my mac, and one of the key reasons i bought that was to be able to use the mark/space notebook that it comes with - i tend to do all of my organization out of a text document/note taker and a calendar. thats one of the things about the BB that i love.

someone eventually must make a 3rd party app that will allow note syncs on iphone. i hope.

I came from a Blackberry 8700G, and I love the iPhone, but it doesn't compare for power use of email, tasks, notes, etc.

There is really no push email on the iPhone. They have said it would have push, but I've yet to really see it. I know it doesn't work for me. Not being able to set the email check interval below 15 minutes is terrible. Almost a deal breaker for me.

It doesn't sync wirelessly over the air the way the BB can when you are hooked up to a BES server. With my BB, I could literally have synced Email, Calendar, Tasks, Address book, notes. All wirelessly, all live.

With this, yes, you can send and receive email, but that's about it. The calendar only syncs when you physically with the USB cable sync the iPhone.

Surely someone at Apple has a Blackberry or had one, and should have chimed in. I have to believe that Steve Jobs never has used a BB with a BES server attached to it.

I'm hoping for future updates to the iPhone that add functionality, but it may never come.

All that said, I put up with lack of connectivity and USEFUL features for the slick shiny interface of the iPhone. It's a revision 1 product, and therefore much won't work perfectly. Apple has done a phenomenal job at making a very workable version 1 product.

opticalserenity said:

Surely someone at Apple has a Blackberry or had one, and should have chimed in. I have to believe that Steve Jobs never has used a BB with a BES server attached to it.

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I think it's really more a statement of maturity of cellular usage. Not one phone is going to work for everyone. The BB and iPhone are very similar in that they're highly optimized devices. I was commenting to my girlfriend about how David Pogue's statement to the effect that the iPhone is remarkable for doing things no other phone can do, while being unable to do things the most basic phone can do, applies equally well to most of the Blackberries.

So I think the iPhone is just very well optimized for a slightly different segment than the Blackberry. RIM thought through the interface of the phone with the business life, from the ground up, in excruciating detail, and made a phone that fits this profile better than any other. Apple thought through the interface of the phone with the human and did the same in that regard.

I think Apple could get closer to some of the neat things RIM did, and the BB could certainly be more made-for-humans, but... they're both very optimized for their niches.

it really depends on what you want to use your phone for. many companies will not switch to the iPhone because of security reasons as well as the lag in email response time that is incurred because of the lack of a push-email system.

moreover, typing is _much_ faster on a blackberry than on a touchscreen. while people get "used" to the iPhone touchscreen typing, they will never get to be as fast as a typer on a blackberry. the word recognition is also better on blackberry.

however, if you are self-employed, and only plan on using your phone to read emails and not necessarily write long, drawn out replies, then an iPhone is much cooler (and more fun!).

I have an iphone, and the truth is, it is a lot more fun than my old treo 700p...however if I was a business man, I probably wouldn't get it. As much as I love this phone, the fact that I can't open and edit MS Word, Excell, and powerpoint docs is unacceptable and cuts down on productivity.

But it is apple, and I am blinded by it's beauty as always.

Now as far as buying a mac goes, that's a different story alltogether. OSX Blows Windows out of the water in productivity, design, and overall enjoyability.

-propynyl

I agree, if you have a company BES setup or are concerned about the weakness in the email..I'd say wait, these issues will be addressed in the future while BB goes BK. Fortunately I do not have those issues and the iPhone actually does the things I need in my business much better than my old Blackberry. By the way, I just found my old Blackberry in a drawer...I forgot how totally hideous it is.

megfilmworks said:

these issues will be addressed in the future while BB goes BK.

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I googled first ... but what does the boldfaced phrase mean? BK = bankrupt? Because of the royalty issue or because it will be overrun by Apple? I'm confused.

mkrishnan said:

I googled first ... but what does the boldfaced phrase mean? BK = bankrupt? Because of the royalty issue or because it will be overrun by Apple? I'm confused.

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Yes and yes; I think their time has come and is quickly fading. Multiple licensing issues and of course Apple being the big elephant in the room as well as all the new competitors who will be in the market. Think 10 years out.

megfilmworks said:

Yes and yes; I think their time has come and is quickly fading. Multiple licensing issues and of course Apple being the big elephant in the room as well as all the new competitors who will be in the market. Think 10 years out.

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Could happen. They might re-invent themselves. I think the biggest danger for them is that they are in a position much like Palm. They do one thing, in essence, excellently. And like Palm, they're in danger of eventually getting displaced by devices that do a number of things well, even if those devices don't do the "one thing" as well. And all the more so this time, since Apple makes products that are far nicer than Windows Mobile devices.

But then too remember that Motorola has really only done one thing well ever in cells also (make a really nice thin flipphone, that has annoying issues, but appeals enough to people on style and size that they overlook it). They went years with absolute crap after StarTAC and then came out with the RAZR. The RAZR has tons of limitations. Mine doesn't even have EDGE. And yet it *is* the best-selling cellphone of all time, AFAIK. And a huge number of them sold before the subsidies were really fully in place, when it was still rather expensive.

Also, BB managed to lure people with the Pearl, many of whom don't even have data plans (on a Blackberry, surreally!), just because it's a likeable candybar phone.

So, I wouldn't necessarily count RIM out. They have a number of options between now and 10 years from now, even if none of those options involve selling a device that's just like the 8700 or 8800 for more than the next 3 years or so.

I love my new (used) 8700g. I've kept my RAZR because I figured I'd switch back and forth, but honestly almost never use the RAZR so far. I'm not quite emotionally ready to switch to AT&T, although in honesty I probably would have gotten an iPhone if T-Mo had it, and I quite likely may soon nonetheless.

I agree with everything you just said. Thought provoking. By the way, I also had a gen1 Razr, a real love hate - relationship