IT for Starters
IT for Starters

Apple's iPhone 3G vs Blackberry Bold

19th May 2009

You may ask why compare the Bold out of the armory of excellent RIM devices but the Bold is being compared to the iPhone simply because I have both to hand to compare.

The comparison will look at how the devices work in SMEs and although I have used Blackberry devices for over 8 years I do like Apple so I will try and be as unbiased as possible.

Physical Attributes

 

iPhone 3GNow Apple are clear cut winners in designing stylish (wanna have) electronic equipment such as the iMac's, ipods, Macbook and it is no surprise the designers have done a wonderful thing creating the iPhone. It feels great in the hand and looks very stylish but hold on a minute the Blackberry Bold, although not as sleek, is the best designed Blackberry on the market. The silver trim of the Bold along with the leather back makes it a stylish device although when compared with the iPhone you can see the Apple designers have designed a piece of modern art. Putting style to one side the Bold is heavier,although not as heavy as it looks and has bigger dimensions but neither of them would ever be considered 'bricks'.

 

Applications

Up until recently I would say these were pretty well matched as there wasn't much in the business area for apps in Apple's App Store. However, this has all changed as iPhone now has some pretty good business/corporate apps:

The way I see things is the OS for the iPhone lends itself so well to the developers for creating apps that if the iPhone does become a friend of the 'corporate employee' then apps will develop quickly for the business user.

 

Corporate Arena

Now it is the corporate arena where the battle really hots up and I have always been a Blackberry fan for a corporate standard so how will the iPhone sway me? Well to be fair Apple has had a good go at the corporate features and linking in with Exchange features it fairs well but it still is a way off from knocking Blackberry of the corporate top spot.

 

Although the iPhone has software for corporate deployment it struggles against the BES software which allows easy deployment and policy control of the device. Something many smaller companies may not be bothered with but the ease of disabling or even wiping a device remotely is a big deal in security circles.

 

Email

Blackberry BoldOne of the reasons for buying one of these devices is for the email functionality, otherwise you would just buy a phone and be done with it. Both work well with email and the displaying of email is actually better on the iPhone. When it comes to features such as marking several items and copy/paste the Blackberry wins hands down. The iPhone is making advances in this area and who knows with the 3rd version out soon it may have sorted these issues out but at the minute these functions for business users are essential.

 

POP and IMAP work well on the iPhone and BIS is just as robust on the Blackberry but on the Corporate side it is the BES that is far superior in email delivery and is truly the desktop extension business users require when out on the road. With RIMS latest software release the editing of attachments in a welcome addition and therefore in my view Blackberry is still the device to have for serious email clients but for those who just want to read and reply then the iPhone is a pretty good device to have.

 

Screen

Now here I am split, I think both devices win and lose on this one. The iPhone has the addition of turning the device to give you are far bigger wide screen however the clarity and picture quality is much better on the Bold and is close to the Sony PSP. You really notice this when you watch video's and this is something I still can't believe "the iPhone does not have a video function, where most basic phones can at least take a few seconds of video footage." So when it comes to the bigger, wider screen then the iPhone wins but if you want better picture quality then you need to look at the Bold.

 

Keyboard

Now it took me a little while to get used to the keyboard on the iPhone (a fraction of the time it took to get used to the Storm though) but once I worked out the best way for my 'sausage' fingers to press the keys it worked really well and was very responsive. The keys on the Blackberry are easier to get to grips with straight away but to be fair I have use the Bold for a lot longer. Having access to the numbers and symbols on the keyboard is a better option then selecting a different screen and makes typing long emails a lot quicker so for me the Bold wins on this but the iPhone does have the best touch screen keyboard I have used to date.

 

Conclusion

Well for me the Bold is a clear winner in the Corporate arena, especially for those clients that want a desktop extension onto the mobile device with fully wireless synchronised email/calendar/contacts/tasks and notes. The security of the Blackberry device is also an area it wins hands down and when talking to a client I will always mention this to them.

 

If however the client simply wants a few devices to read email and use it for traveling wanting a little more than Outlook on the move then the iPhone is certainly something I would suggest.

 

Both devices are on the O2 network which certainly has the best coverage in the UK so Apple have done well with O2 which cannot be said for AT&T in the US so hats off to Apple for producing a great portable device which is practical and fun but in a corporate world where work comes before fun then the Black berry is the device for you.

 

Darren

 

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