Blog - Sunday November 22, 2009 - 19 Comments
iPhone vs. BlackBerry: What To Buy?
“Should I buy an iPhone or a BlackBerry?” It’s the most popular tech question I get asked. Here’s how to think about what your answer should be.
Phone
First, both Apple and RIM call their devices phones. While this is technically true, iPhones are only available on the AT&T network. BlackBerrys can be found on both Verizon and AT&T. Depending upon where you live, this simple truth may be the only thing you need to consider. In many locations throughout America it is practically impossible to use the iPhone as a phone. AT&T simply drops too many calls, too often. This may sound like harsh criticism, but I have never ended an iPhone call with “good bye.” It’s always, “Hello? Hello?” As a phone, the iPhone is all but useless. To be fair, I don’t think you would do much better with a BlackBerry on AT&T, but I have heard fewer complaints from BlackBerry users about the network.
On the other hand, a BlackBerry Curve (or Tour) on Verizon Wireless is not only an excellent phone, it is a serviceable speakerphone (For all practical purposes, the iPhone cannot be used as a speakerphone.)
If you are looking for a phone, buy a BlackBerry.
Multi-media Functionality
A 32GB iPhone 3GS, may not be much of a phone, but it is an extraordinary multi-media device. It has a serviceable camera, a remarkable screen, a killer user interface and, as you already know from Apple’s commercials, over 100,000 available apps. If you can think of it, there’s an app for it, and the list is growing daily. This sounds like a unique selling principle of the device. And, in many ways it is. However, in practice, there are only a certain number of apps that apply to you and, in practice, the functions are available on both devices.
Camera (Still & Video)
iPhone wins — no contest!
Screen
iPhone wins — no contest!
Photo & Video Viewing, Game Play and everything fun
iPhone wins — no contest!
Web
iPhone wins — no contest! However, the Google apps for BlackBerry can make web browsing on a BlackBerry good enough for occasional use.
Email
The iPhone integrates with Mac Mail quite well. It has the ability to receive POP3 and IMAP email from your servers and also is somewhat compatible with Microsoft Exchange. The email client is sub-optimal (I’m being kind). If you do a lot of email, you will hate the iPhone.
The BlackBerry has a flawless email client. Whether you use Exchange or POP3 or IMAP, it is push and it is a pleasure. You can search the device quickly and find everything related to everything. With regard to email and txt, the BlackBerry is all business and it just works.
HTML email is the wildcard, Apple wins because of its wonderful screen and user interface, but BlackBerry software does display HTML email and, although it is not an enjoyable experience, the emails are readable.
Keyboard
BlackBerry wins — no contest!
Battery Life
BlackBerry wins — no contest!
Voice Recorder
iPhone & BlackBerry both work. iPhone’s voice recorder integrates with iTunes (very nice), BlackBerry’s requires a bunch of transcoding from the BlackBerry desktop to your preferred file format. Yuck!
What to Buy
If you really want an iPhone, go ahead and buy one. You will also absolutely need to purchase an external battery like the Mophie Juice Pack (I like the juice pack because it is more powerful than the Mophie Juice Pack Air and I’m not purchasing an external battery for its aesthetics.) If you buy an iPhone, there is a very good chance you are also going to need to purchase a cell phone and get a contract from Verizon. I don’t know about you, but I like to make a phone call or two on my phone and, as I said, this is simply not possible with an iPhone. (Jobsian supplicants: Before you burn me in effigy, understand that I am one of you. I own a 32GB iPhone 3GS. I love it and worship it. I love Steve. In fact, if you were to visit my home, it looks like Steve Jobs threw up in here. I literally have every Apple product ever made. But, you must admit this unspoken truth - the iPhone sucks as a phone.)
If you really need to do email, txt and have friends who use BBM (BlackBerry Messenger a free, instant BlackBerry-only chat client) and you don’t feel like having two phone company contracts to pay each month, BlackBerry is the way to go. However, if you really want all the features of the iPhone, including access to the App store, you are going to want to also purchase an iPod Touch You can probably get away with the 8GB model for $199. Apple offers models up to 64GB for $399, but unless you love movies on the go, and want to store dozens of them on your device, you don’t need to spend the extra money. The Touch doesn’t have a camera, but it is a great little WiFi enabled web browser, app and gaming platform. Carrying both a BlackBerry and a Touch is a good compromise.
If you want only one device — you can’t have all of the features available in our mobile, 3G world.
The recommended iPhone Rig: 32GB iPhone 3GS, Mophie Juice Pack ($99), Any Verizon Cell phone.
The recommended BlackBerry Rig: Verizon BlackBerry Curve or Tour, 8GB iPod Touch ($199)
What do I carry? I have a 32GB iPhone 3GS and I have a Verizon Motorola Droid, which has replaced my BlackBerry Curve for the moment. Is the Droid an iPhone killer or a BlackBerry killer? That’s for the next column. 
Shelly Palmer is the host of "Digital Life with Shelly Palmer," a weekly half-hour television show about living and working in a digital world which can be seen on WNBC-TV’s NY Nonstop Tuesdays at 10p Eastern and online, and the host of "MediaBytes," a daily news show that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology, media, and entertainment. He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group, LLC an industry-leading advisory and business development firm and the President of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, NY (the organization that bestows the coveted Emmy® Awards). Mr. Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted: The Transition from Network to Networked TV (2008, York House Press) and the upcoming, Get Digital: Reinventing Yourself and Your Career for the 21st Century Economy (2009, Lake House Press). You can join the MediaBytes mailing list here. Shelly can be reached at shelly@palmer.net For information visit www.shellypalmer.com
Comments
19 Responses to “iPhone vs. BlackBerry: What To Buy?”andy November 22nd, 2009 11:09 am
How does the iPhone win camera? The tour’s is 3.2 mega pixel. It is
3 times better.
Shelly Palmer November 22nd, 2009 11:14 am
Andy — the iPhone wins camera because of it’s screen, iPhoto and
the ecosystem. I love the camera in the Tour as a pure point and
shoot, but the BlackBerry photo experience is difficult and
emotionally unsatisfying by comparison to the iPhone experience.
Pure pixels does not a photo make!
JZ November 22nd, 2009 2:13 pm
The Blackberry is going the way of the Motorola Razr which I owned.
I switched from the Razr to the Blackberry which was a game-changer
in its day. I now own an iPhone another game-changer. The
difference is that I can’t see how I could ever switch from the
iPhone because off the applications like NeuroMobile and
Dictionary.com that I rely on. The applications advantage makes the
underlying handset technology less relevant. Apple now just has to
keep pace with the handset technology and keep churning out great
applications — Game Over!
Dunc Fowler November 22nd, 2009 6:32 pm
Shelly, Have you looked at the Storm 2 as a iPhone replacement.
Then you get a great network but not as many apps
Adrian Hoe November 22nd, 2009 8:06 pm
AFAIK, iPhone has seamless interoperability with corporate exchange
server while BB on the other hand requires expensive software to
connect to exchange server. I would say iPhone wins in email with
no contest. I may be wrong.
iPhone Comparisons November 22nd, 2009 8:36 pm
I appreciate the comprehensive comparison between the iPhone and
blackberry. I’m sure im not the only one caught in the middle.
Thanks for the wisdom. Now we know better :-)
11/23/2009 Update « iPhone News November 22nd, 2009 11:10 pm
[...] iPhone vs. BlackBerry: What To Buy? | MediaBytes with Shelly
Palmer [...]
Jill November 22nd, 2009 11:14 pm
> I have never ended an iPhone call with “good bye.” Never? So
you are claiming *100 PERCENT* dropped calls with AT&T… in
every city you’ve ever been in, right?
JS-DC November 23rd, 2009 2:20 pm
I’m an iPhone user in Washington DC. I travel extensively
internationally, and less domestically and I have never, ever had a
call dropped from my iPhone. Reception is great everywhere I go in
DC, not to mention London, Paris, Nairobi, etc. And I always can
get through the whole day on one battery (and without disabling the
battery-chugging 3G). So I’m not sure where your ideas about
dropped calls and battery come from.
Gwalachmai November 23rd, 2009 10:24 pm
“the iPhone wins camera because of it’s screen, iPhoto and the
ecosystem” ?!? Honestly, crap. The Blackberry has the camera
convenience key, so it’s a case of whisking the Blackberry out,
pushing to run the camera, and pushing again to take. Want it on
facebook? 2 more clicks. Want it on MMS? Send it to the wife? still
just a click or two away. ecosystem my @r$e. Camera (Still &
Video) BlackBerry wins - no contest! Actually, the Storm2 has a
much better screen than the iphone too, so maybe: Screen BlackBerry
wins - almost no contest!
Daniel Montecillo November 24th, 2009 5:47 pm
I agree that in terms of multimedia and entertainment the iPhone
wins. But when you’re talking about emails and other business
stuff, like emails and messaging, I believe that blackberry still
has the edge. It is a pure business machine. I have an iPod touch,
Treo 680 and BB 8310 curve. Based on my experience, the curve has
allowed me more flexibility in terms of connecting to my clients,
projects,and etc thru email, and it never fails. The battery life
is excellent and at the same time it allows me to receive and
manage my emails from my multiple accounts in just one screen.
There are some rough edge on the bb like not havin an accurate time
stamp on the emails that I received whereareas in the iPhone, it
shows the actual time that the message has been sent by the sender,
but it is just a small quirks in the bb. The overall efficiency is
just there. The phone capability is also excellent I can get
several days of heavy emails and phone calls on the curve while on
my friends iPhone he needs to charge it every end of the day. Push
email on the iPhone is not as refined compare to the push email
functionality of the bb. BB is just to good when it comes to one
specific thing which is email and phone functionality. The iphone
excels in the flexibility of the available apps that it has, and
because of this you can extend the iPhone as an ebook reader,
mobile internet device and a thin client solution to access mobile
databases. Posting using my curve
Shelly Palmer November 24th, 2009 6:05 pm
Jill — Yes, I have a 100% dropped call percentage with AT&T. I live in NYC and, to date, I have not completed an entire call on my iPhone.
Shelly Palmer November 24th, 2009 6:08 pm
Gwalachmai — I’m sorry you don’t have an iPhone to actually compare the BlackBerry photo experience to. Yes, the BlackBerry has a convenience key that will bring up the camera instantly and yes, you can MMS or send the photo via email. However, this photo is terrible, the flash (where BlackBerrys offer the feature) is useless, the contrast ratio and color space of the pictures are horrible. By comparison, the iPhone camera is much better. If you hold the button down for 2 seconds, it launches the camera (this is programmable to other functions on the iPhone as well), you can instantly MMS or email a much better photo instantly. As I said, camera and video, iPhone wins — no contest.
iPhone News » iPhone vs. BlackBerry November 25th, 2009 2:23 am
[...] Zum vollständigen Artikel: shellypalmermedia.com [...]
The eternal question: BlackBerry or iPhone?: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 27, 2009 | MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 27th, 2009 7:07 am
[...] Regularly scheduled MediaBytes programming will return
Monday, until then, here are some tips to help you answer the
eternal question: BlackBerry or iPhone? You can read more about it
here. [...]
The Eternal Question: BlackBerry or iPhone?: MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 27, 2009 | MediaBytes with Shelly Palmer November 27th, 2009 8:40 am
[...] insight to help you answer the eternal question: BlackBerry
or iPhone? You can read more about it here. The top stories in
technology, media and entertainment will be back on [...]
Jonathan November 27th, 2009 8:59 am
I have a Samsung BlackjackII with AT&T service. I can be
standing next to a friend with an iPhone, my call goes through and
is ended with a simple goodbye, his calls hardly ever get through
on the first try and when they are completed invariably are ended
with an frustrated “hello, hello”. I have a theory. European cell
phone standards require that phones emit way less rf. It’s a matter
of health. Apple sells, or wants to sell many phones in Europe. So,
could it be that the iPhone sold in the US is set up to work at
lower wattage and emit fewer stray RFs, resulting in many dropped
calls? I would guess that Apple doesn’t want to manufacture
different phones for different markets and just makes one that will
conform to many standards. Also, with reduced wattage comes longer
battery life. Just a theory. Has anyone been able to analyze this
definitively with information from Apple or AT&T?
Luis Alberto Gonzalez November 29th, 2009 7:41 pm
FYI, T-Mobile also offers Blackberry service, with a 3G network.
Much better customer service, specially if you live out west.
Dawn December 29th, 2009 3:17 am
I think you are exaggerating the phone call aspect of the iPhone. I
have been using it for over a year now in NYC and don’t experience
that problem. My friends who use iphones too complain a little
sometimes, but it is on rare occasion. I am sure every network is
not 100% efficient all the time. With regards to keyboard, I
personally disagree that the Blackberry is easier to use. The
buttons aren’t very big, and I find they take more effort to type
(and press down). It also looks cluttered. The iPhone’s touch
screen keypad admittedly takes some getting use to at first. I
think when people first try it they get turned off by their
unfamiliarity with this new tactile function. But trust me, in a
week or two you’ll be typing so swiftly and easily! Just a light
touch is needed, and you can turn it to the wider landscape mode
too (although I never need to use that)