Why I’m Turning in my Blackberry for an iPhone 3G
I love my blackberry. And I’ve written about how much I love it.
I am disappointed by the ‘iPhone 2.0′ - it doesn’t have video recording - let alone MMS.
… But today I dropped my blackberry and severely scratched the screen. It made me consider whether to:
1) buy a new Blackberry Curve
2) wait until the new Blackberry Bold arrives
3) trade it in for the new iPhone 3G
The answer was pretty easy: It’s time to convert to the new iPhone. I don’t love the iPhone for reasons I’ve already written about. First, the new version isn’t as innovative as it claims. Second, I use my Blackberry to send numerous daily emails and really do need a full keyboard. Third, I have no complaints about my current Blackberry and its interface.
But… now that I need a new phone, the biggest draw to the iPhone 2.0 is it’s platform…. especially considering my role at Widgetbox. I love my Blackberry - but the iPhone’s open platform is attractive enough to draw me towards Apple. I already know I won’t love the iPhone - but I am sure there will be plenty of applications that I grow to love.
I work in a world of platforms, applications and widgets - at this point, I feel guilty using my Blackberry (despite loving it) because it’s neither the future of mobile nor is it the representative of the (open) web philosophies I believe in.
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June 14th, 2008 at 9:09 pm
[…] Ryan Spoon placed an interesting blog post on Why I’m Turning in my Blackberry for an iPhone 3GHere’s a brief overviewThe answer was pretty easy: It’s time to convert to the new iPhone. I don’t love the iPhone for reasons I’ve already written about. First, the new version isn’t as innovative as it claims. Second, I use my Blackberry to send numerous … […]
June 14th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
[…] Original post by Ryan Spoon […]
June 15th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Ryan,
I think a lot of Blackberry users are going to go through the same exercise. It’s difficult to leave something that works and meets your needs but the iPhone is pretty tempting. My sense is the iPhone-Blackberry battle is going to get really interesting when the Bold and Thunder hit the market.
Mark
June 15th, 2008 at 6:09 am
[…] Ryan Spoon’s post on how he’s being tempted to cast aside his tried-and-trusted Blackberry for a new iPhone (an exercise many Blackberry users will go soon through) got me thinking how shiny and new easily captures the imagination and dollars of consumers. […]
June 15th, 2008 at 7:47 am
I own and run a san francisco based “open platform strategy” consultancy, so I share the desire to be across the latest platforms in the market.
I, however, won’t be upgrading my trusty Blackberry 8810 for an iPhone.
For a start, you’s be surprised how powerful the iPod Touch and a Blackberry can be combined. The touch will be running iPhone Software 2.0 and so in terms of building and experiencing apps, you can do that eaisly without going down the apple cell phone route.
I also love to tether my EVDO blackberry to my mac when I’m out and about - you can’t do that with the iPhone, and for me that’s where things start to go wrong with the iPhone, and just how “open” the broader proposition really is.
The apps themselves look like they will be vetted, and of course you have to pay-to-play when it comes to app dev. iPhone is a platform, sure, it’s not an *open* platform in my book.
Finally I doubt the Blackberry bold and other models will offer such platforms. I’m expecting them to be form-factor clones with the same old BB software on them - which as u say is good and trusty, but now ‘open’ or easily expanable.
For me, I’m looking at Nokia to innovate a true open platform, but honestly I think it’s way way off.
Phones will not be truely “open” for some time to come - the handset makers through to the operators have too much of a revenue business going on there to really want to change
June 15th, 2008 at 8:41 am
Android IS open, and a handset maker will be able to make an Android phone with GSM technology that will allow me to pop in my SIM from Tmob or ATT. Any app that a company can build will then be able to be loaded and run on the phone.
I will never sign a two year contract again; phone subsidies are lack the cocaine dealer, “The first line is free”.
June 15th, 2008 at 10:11 am
[…] Link: Why I’m Turning in my Blackberry for an iPhone 3G […]
June 15th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Uh, who cares what phone you buy?
June 15th, 2008 at 11:07 am
[…] Link: Why I’m Turning in my Blackberry for an iPhone 3G […]
June 15th, 2008 at 11:41 am
“the iPhone’s open platform is attractive enough to draw me towards Apple”
Calling iPhone development “open” makes me believe you are new to this and/or naive. The iPhone is one of the most controlled/closed platforms there is.
Any app you write for the iPhone will only work on one phone from one company with all their headaches, restrictions, poor design choices, etc. The mobile applications I have written to date run on several different classes of phones from several different companies.
You must have a Mac for development, and it must be running Leopard in order to run the development tools. You want Apple Care too, doncha? You must also pay Apple $100 once you decide to distribute your app (Blackberry is similar in that you have to buy a developer certificate to sign the app with). These all add up for smaller shops.
You are forced into a specific contract (at the very least, the $70/month voice+data plan) with AT&T and cannot leave the store with a new phone without having it activated. Running on a simulator is not the same as running on a phone. At the very least you will have to have one iphone for testing your app. The cost keeps increasing.
You must use their language/toolchain for the creation of your application.
You are forced to use their content distribution mechanism. Why can’t I install any app I want on *my* phone?
They have ruled out classes of applications that you can develop: no real-time route guidance or dispatch/fleet management apps. This is a *GPS* phone, right?
No background processes? I love how they come out and act like not having this is doing you a favor or something. This has been around for *years* on other phones and rules out several types of applications that can be built.
These are just a few issues. Right out the gate, you are locked into Apple’s ways of doing things. I don’t even laugh anymore when people utter the word “open” in the same sentence with “Apple”.
Whatever you do, good luck, and post your progress on your developments here. Once you have been in the thick of mobile development for longer than a year with a real product, I’d like to see what you think about it.
June 15th, 2008 at 11:52 am
No matter which decision you make, this is an issue that pretty much every BB owner is going to have to wrestle with over the next year.
I have a red Curve and while I am not passionately in love with it, I like it quite a lot. The iPhone 2.0 is very tempting, mostly for the significantly improved web experience and the faster net access. On the other hand, I’m very concerned about the iPhone’s virtual keyboard & loss of typing speed.
I haven’t made a decision, and I don’t need to right now, but I’m watching the whole debate very closely.
June 15th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
As you know, I’m as much a BlackBerry user as there is and despite my MacBook Pro as my primary workhorse, I’m not a big Apple fan. However, the make-or-break corporate features of Exchange integration and remote wipe now makes it a viable choice for some IT groups — at least on the surface. The IT managers of larger companies are the decision makers and despite the demands of the executives and users they support, if it doesn’t make IT’s job easier, the iPhone is not going to pass muster.
In addition, the real test is going to be how well-done the features have been implemented. If meetings and attachments can’t be managed as well as they are on the BB, it’ll leave millions of users waiting for the next iteration.
June 15th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
[…] Link: Why I’m Turning in my Blackberry for an iPhone 3G […]
June 16th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
Interesting…I struggle with Ryan’s struggle. I understand loving a device because it’s just plain unbelievable. I was a treo-lover for years while everything else sucked and BB was boring. I rolled over to a BB because the Curve finally brought so much of it’s value together in a more tightly wound user experience. For me the BB bolsters my position as a consultant as I can speak from personal experience to my clients around many of the apps and their possibilities…so I can relate to Ryan’s “philosophical” decision. Personally, I’d be inclined to maintain both handhelds - the iPhone to support your platform POV and the Blackberry to stay up to speed on the device and drive RIM to keep up with his POV. Maintain your status as a valued opinion holder for the brand.
June 16th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Boy that’s really silly. You should obviously buy a Blackberry. iPhone is open? hahaha
July 20th, 2008 at 9:17 am
i just returned my iphone. you cannot search, you cannot copy and paste and if you get 100+ emails a day it drives you mad.
also i travel a lot and the data usage of this phone is crazy. it downloads every attachment first, even when I forward it without reading it… the blackberry has by far the most sophisticated push system out there and it is also push for GMAIL and virtually any other pop application.
July 20th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
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August 22nd, 2008 at 4:26 am
~Advise: Buy a Sony Ericsson K800 (unlocked), save yourself the agony of indecision and in the process…look smarter and wiser than your buddies buying the BB & Ipnone.