And the winner is ...
by Volker Weber
I took three mobiles to Lotusphere I admit that is pretty nerdy. All of them had WiFi. A BlackBerry, a Nokia smartphone and an iPhone. They were all loaded, with a GSM chip and ready to go. But I have only used one: the iPhone.
These are the applications I needed:
- eMail: that is an easy one. All of the devices can do that, and the BlackBerry is the best bar none. The iPhone works, but a BlackBerry outruns it. The Nokia is fine, but much much slower.
- Photo album: the iPhone leaves everything else in the dust. The others don't even come close.
- Weather: very decent widget on the iPhone. Gets the job done quickly. Nothing to write home about on the other two.
- Stocks: same thing as weather. There was a huge slide while we were in Orlando and it was good to have that information handy.
- Twitter: works well on all devices. BlackBerry has a fat client, but the browser apps on the iPhone are great. I did not check it as often as I thought I would.
- Google maps: best on the iPhone but have not used it at all. I know my way around Lotusphere and the area around it quite well by now.
- Instant messaging: I am on Skype when at home, but hardly on the go. No need to walk around with a device in front of your face. :-)
The iPhone wins hands down. eMail is not on par with BlackBerry, but good enough. The widgets are nice. But the photo album was the final push. Interestingly enough I have not used the iPhone as an iPod even once. I still carried a "real" iPod with excellent battery life and a standard headset plug.
Comments
I for my part cant wait for hopefully a new iPhone anytime this year.
The E0 is a brlliant Phone but everytime I see my friends iPhone I want it. that says it all I guess. And it ultmatly has the most important functions as you just pointed out.
> I still carried a "real" iPod with excellent battery life and a standard headset plug.
Does the iPhone not have a "standard headset plug"? Thats one of the features I love at my BlackBerry Curve - all the other BlackBerry devices have a special, smaller plug.
My next mobile will also be an iPhone, as soon as it supports a Todo application - necessary for users with an age of over 50 :), MMS and UMTS.
@Thomas The iPhone has a standard sized plug, but it is recessed and so most third party headphone jacks will not fit. There are a number of solutions out there to get round this, but it is still a bit of an inconvenience...
Thomas, Stuart answered the question already. But I'd like to add that with the iPhone you have he same situation as with the older BlackBerrys, the Nokias, the Treos et al. You need to carry a small dongle that translates from the device to your headphone. On the other devices it is a 2.5mm to 3.5mm dongle. On the iPhone it translates from the recessed iPhone socket to the standard plug. That is one moving part I just replaced with an iPod (that I already had).
iPhone may well be great, but I'll have to stick with my BB Curve for now as I do not want an O2 contract. Vodafone remains the best mobile network for business in the UK.
Perhaps, if Apple ever sees reason regarding its policy of locking into a single carrier in each geography...
Surprised not to see the E90 listed, but I know the NokiaBerry is very similar.
