Mr. Lizaridis seems to be playing the old school PR and marketing game where you act like everything is gravy until the very last moment when the ship goes down, but I don’t think that works like it used to. Consumers are smarter, information flows freely, we know the truth. Stop lying to us. Steve Jobs does the same thing except people can’t tell when he is lying, I swear Macs have cured cancer 5 times in the last 10 years (I kid…).

I do think Mike is on point about blackberry’s strengths when it comes to push technology, multitasking, battery life, and wireless efficiency.

To each his own. I agree with what you said for the most part (bb web sucks, iphone is simpler to use, good music playback, games), except for you comments on dialing a contact. As a long time BB user (as you claim to be), you should know that once you are in the address book (or the phone screen), you can just type the name you want to dial. Dialing that way is faster than dialing on the iphone.

I think the iphone may be simpler to use, but not necessarily easier to use. The blackberry may have a steeper learning curve, but once you learn, some things are easier to do. Take dialing from the address book for example, or turning off bluetooth/wifi/cell access (like 4 clicks on iphone, 2 on blackberry). There are other examples. Ease of use can be complicated to accurately measure and is very subjective.

I would have to agree with CP about typing though. I picked up an ipod touch once, and maybe I was doing it wrong, but it took me like 30 seconds to type my email address. I made a lot of mistakes, and it was hard to accurately press specific letters. This was like my second or third time trying to type on an iphone/ipod touch, but the first time I picked up a storm, typing was much easier (this was in landscape mode vs portrait on the ipod touch though). And of course non touch blackberries are cake. That does not really say much about overall typing experience, but it does show that learning to type with a blackberry keyboard is easier than learning to type on the iphone.

P.S. I use copy and paste regularly (several times a day).

I also own an iPod touch (which does everything the iPhone does aside from phone part) and it is a very cool device for music, games, etc…but I can’t stand trying to type more than a couple words at a time!

As Lazaridis said, there is not one device that works well for everyone’s every need; that just doesn’t make good sense. If you need serious emailing capabilities, you need a BlackBerry with a physical keyboard. If security policies and Enterprise integration is a big deal, hands down, you need a BlackBerry. If you’re more into graphical/accelerometer/multimedia-type applications, the iPhone might fit the bill well.

awesome browser (If Mobile Safari were Firefox 3, BB’s browser would be IE 1

Great phone (double click button for contacts, quickly locate any contact) With the BB (scroll over to address book, scroll through list) It takes 2 or 3 times as long to make a call on a BB

Great for music (it IS an ipod)

great games

a lot of useful apps.

Awesome keyboard (I can type faster on the iphone than on a BB, despite have three years prior experience with a BB. When I’m not typing, it doesn’t take up half the screen

Ease of use (iphone 8, BB 3)

Rarely use copy/paste or MMS. With 3.0 update, will enjoy not using them on iphone

• The iPhone had Wi-Fi from day one.

• The original iPhone will be two years old this summer. The iPhone 3G will be one year old this summer.

• The iPhone App Store had thousands of applications when it opened, most of them brand new, not redesigned from other operating systems.

• Apple’s killer app is Safari, which no other phone browser can compete with.

• With both MobileMe and Microsoft Exchange available, Apple has greatly improved synching for the iPhone.

It appears Apple will sell more than RIM’s current record of 50 million devices in four years or less, counting only iPhone models. The iPod Touch is selling well, too. It took RIM 10 years to set the record.

1) BB the best? Without doubt, for some, I’m sure it is. For SOME. But this statement really doesn’t add anything to the discussion.

2) Keyboard: Most BB’s have a keyboard. If that’s a requirement, then no they don’t compare. That’s only one of three possibilities. The other two options are, either will do, or ‘touch’ is a requirement. In this case, they do overlap. Excessive praise is as non-productive as excessive bashing. ALL iPhones have always had wifi. The original iPhone didn’t have 3G wireless. It only had edge and wifi. 3G and WiFi are hardware features. This can’t be retroactively fitted. No WiFi is a bigger issue than no 3G for most due to cost. If the original iPhone was any worse than the original BB Storm, it would not have survived, much less thrived. Unlike the BB storm, Apple had no history at all in cell phones. People would have just laughed at it. Remember Steve Balmer? Did the iPhone have software issues? Yes. OS 2.0 had even more issues, but these were fixed with updates, just as I’m sure the storm will get better too. But some things can’t be ‘fixed’. They need to be replaced. BB’s web browser for instance…

“What I find difficult to understand is iphone users constantly
groaning about BB devices when they are currently using a V2 device that cannot do
something as simple as copy/paste or send an MMS message yet apple promise they will
fix all of this after 4 years and a V3 release of a product! Yet here we have the iphone users
down talking the BB OS yet we have had this ability since near day one.” HERE, you have a valid argument, and there’s no refutation possible.

3) BB Push/pull technology: If you had stopped with your first two sentences, I’d let it stand. Is BB tech currently better? Probably. Is iphone push/pull a battery draining, bad implementation? No. Apple’s SERVER side .me implementation had serious bugs, but like BB, they fix it until it works. Additionally, since most of the problems seemed to be server, and not client side software, updates came quick, and needed few customer downloads. Much like BB, no?

4) BB app world: Developers will indeed make many fine apps for BB phones. But the number of different phones hinders software development. It fragments the market, since different phones have different capabilities. You must develop simpler apps, that run on most BB phones, or target just the phones with the capabilities you need. Additionally, Apple’s app store has momentum (mind share). Lots of it. People know how to get to it, how to use it, how to pay, and what to expect. BB? It can take a few more steps, which reduces impulse purchases.

The last paragraph is as bad or worse than iPhone users bashing (any) BB phone. A gimmick? No. If a business user is typing dozens of e-mails as long as your post, or mine, then he/she needs a net-book, or a laptop. Anything less is masochism.

Your argument today’s BB:
Web browser? Your statement only show’s you’ve spent little or no time with the browser on an iphone.
WiFi? Got it.
3G? Got it.
Camera? Got it.
video? certainly, not stock, but there may be an app for it.
copy/paste? — this is valid, but only for a couple more months.
MMS? — same as above.
calendar? Got it
e-mail? Got it.

Be careful about bashing something you have little knowledge of, no matter how irritating. the poster may be!

I would like to say the following:

1) I have been a BB user for 5 years and I have always been happy with the service and
devices. Right now I’m using a BOLD and it is without doubt the best mobile device available
right now for what I require from a device. It has everything I require and more.

2) I wouldn’t even compare most BB devices and the iphone as they are simply not
comparable. I would only compare the Storm to an iphone and although it doesn’t interest
me personally I’ve had a go and it seems a great device if touch is what you’re looking for.
I see the usual BB bashers in here preaching about the iphone but when it was first released
it didn’t have wifi either etc and was much like RIM’s first model but actually worse in many
ways. I’m sure when RIM release the V2 Storm it will have wi-fi and a better OS with various
other innovative features. What I find difficult to understand is iphone users constantly
groaning about BB devices when they are currently using a V2 device that cannot do
something as simple as copy/paste or send an MMS message yet apple promise they will
fix all of this after 4 years and a V3 release of a product! Yet here we have the iphone users
down talking the BB OS yet we have had this ability since near day one.

3) The comment regarding the push/pull tech. BB has unique world renowned technology that
as was said in the above article cannot be imitated cheaply which apple have attempted to
do. Basically if these iphone users would dig a little they would see that the inexperience of
the apple developers (in temrs of years developing this type of device in this type of market)
has led to a device which has a bad OS/tech implementation with imitation technology that drains the battery in
a matter of hours and far less than they claim it does.

4)The BB app world is a new release. It doesn’t have many great apps yet but this will get
better in time. Again for iphone groaners if you do a little research you will see that RIM
have opened their app store with more available apps than when apple opened theirs. The
difference being developers are dealing with several BB devices not just one standard
iphone platform. Looking at the multi million users of BB devices around the world it is
an extremely stupid comment to say that developers won’t make apps for these devices
when in fact they will be falling over themselves to tap a lucrative market of mostly business
users and those with generally expensive devices so it indicates more money may be
available for developers to get us to part with.

It seems pointless to defend the BB but now and again I become so fed-up of stupid
comments from iphone users who can offer nothing more than a ‘my phones better’ discussion.
The iphone is merely a gimmick. How any serious business user looking for the functionality
provided by a BB can look for this in an iphone astonishes me. The iphone is a fun device I
do agree but a touch screen keyboard to type a business email dozens of times a day is
not realistic. My bold device has a good browser (I like the browser on the BB), wi_fi, 3G,
camera/video, copy/paste, MMS, calendar, email and so much more. I wouldn’t part with it for
100 iphones but then again I can offer a reason why