I have to say that I LOVE my iPhone 3G. Granted, there were rocky times the first 2 days with the activation issues, battery not being "warmed up" yet, MobileMe issues and not getting my exchange email syncing properly. However, after getting all these issues resolves I have to say this is by FAR the best phone I have ever had. Battery is no longer an issue for me (took 3 days with WALL CHARGING and not computer charging to fix it), I've dropped it without one scratch (build quality is MUCH better than it seems), and both my MobileMe and Exchange account are working flawlessly now.
3G is incredible and I have learned to turn off location services when I do not need it (and I def don't need it very often). Calendars & contacts sync instantly with my Mac and all my emails are pushed instantly. I have absolutely not issues with my screen and think it looks amazing even compared to the 1st gen iPhone and I have no dust under my screen.
I actually think that for any business user who is not on a BES, the iPhone BLOWS the blackberry out of the water (and I had 2 blackberry's on at&t before switching to the iPhone 3G). After reading all the negative reviews I thought it was only right to show some of us are having a great experience with our new purchase.
I was a BlackBerry owner with BES. Rented Exchange services with Mail2Web, with BlackBerry Enterprise Services. You know what that actually gets you? Renting Exchange for $14.95 a month gets you just 1GB of email. And you have to spend yet another $14.95 to get the BES. So about $30 a month or $360 a year.
With MobileMe, I am getting 20 GBs of storage. 20 times the storage of Exchange. And with MobileMe, I get Push Email, Contacts, and AddressBook.
I also want to write one more thing. BlackBerry users love to say that email is their best strength. Well, I don't know how many of you have ever used it for a long period of time. I was using BB OS 4.2. And at that time, there is no HTML parse. You when you get an email with a lot of linked images, you see a text version with so many links it makes the email unreadable. Just imagine an email that almost looks like the source code of an html page. Not that bad, but close enough. I had to use a 3rd party HTML parse engine by a 3rd party developer called, 'Empower'. Lot's of BB owners do this just to make the email readable.
With that said, let me dispel the myth that the BB has better email. It does not have better email than the iPhone. It had PUSH email, and for those that have become accustomed to instant email that was a feature they were not willing to leave. But for the past few days, I have had PUSH with MobileMe. And it's every bit as fast as what I had with my Exchange / BES combo. It's less than 1/3rd the price, and it's 20 times the storage. And because Apple gets it, it's full HTML. You see it like a desktop app. And attachment viewing is by far better than what the BB offers.
So if you are someone reading this that has accepted what those repeating the words, BB has the best email, keep saying over and over, don't believe it. It's being said by those who have a bias. By those are not even willing to try an iPhone longer than a few hours.
You know what hurt the email experience on the iPhone more than anything? The delay it took to load the email. The email should be downloaded, stored, and cached so it is always instantly readable. That's the one thing the iPhone could do better with regards to email. Now with 3G, even emails with large PDFs open pretty quickly. I'll see how it works for a week or so before making up my mind, but this is one ex BlackBerry user who sees the issue clearly. If they honestly believe that they have better email than the iPhone, they need to open their eyes.
The BB is yesterday. I don't see it competing with the iPhone on any level. Not a one. It's like saying DOS is better than a GUI. I don't think so. Some improvements are just better. All around better. And this is one of those.
And please, don't throw that secure garbage at me. If your company uses PCs, that right there is no more secure than an iPhone. And we all know, a company is only as secure as its weakest link. The minute your company added a PC to the network, they added a device that sends email without going through a NOC. They added a device that taps directly into the Exchange server the exact same way the iPhone does. So please, don't sell me on the garbage that the iPhone makes a company less secure. Your desktops did that a long time ago already.
I think MobileMe and the iPhone 3G are a vast improvement. There have been hick-ups. There always is with something so different. Growing pains are to be expected. But look at what Apple truly did for us in one year. You got PUSH email. You got a web interface so Windows users have a great experience with their low-cost PUSH service. It's by far cheaper PUSH than anything they have had before. And they have native Exchange support. They have 3G, which can talk voice and do data at the same time. You have location-based services. That's all pretty incredible.
Alex
way in future
