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The Battle of the Smart-Phones is...over?

A little over 1 year ago I announced online that I would put powerhouse smart phones "Blackberry" & the Apple "iPhone" in a head-2-head battle to see which one would reign supreme over my business & personal cell-phone needs. What I didn't mention is how long this evaluation would take. Well, it's been over two years (the length of the average cell phone company contract) & yes I have determined a winner!

But before I get to that, let's go over the history of the Blackberry & I. When I first started my business 10 years ago, I wanted a phone that screamed "hey am about my business"! And about that time a company called "Nextel" had gained momentum on the cell-phone scene in the Washington DC area with their push-to-talk feature. Soon, every major business was on the push-to-talk kick to get business "done". It was a brilliant & cost effective way to keep track of employees & their work progress. But what happened next was truly unexpected, but very welcomed by Nextel. The average consumer took to the push-to-talk feature like Mitt Romney to a off-shore account..it was just irresistible! Everyone wanted to chirp at the 7-eleven to their buddy out-side in the car, "so what chips did you want?". Soon,I went from BIG BULKY flip-phones to eventually the Blackberry.

Although I enjoyed my BB, I found that I was missing "something" from my cell phone. The problem was I never realized just how slow the operating system was at the time because,at the time, the speed was still conceivably sound for the technology available. I was able to email & receive spread sheets & word documents and get business "done". But then, with the introduction of the smartphone revolution, every company came for Blackberry's head! To me, the new smaller size phones boasting faster applications, music & games only seemed like glorified video games with a phone feature. At last, I must fast forward to the present (2 years ago) cause I could go on & on about the differences between the various phones & features that were force fed to the technology starving public over the years.

So, back the the BB & iphone test. Well, this is actually really simple. I'm not going to get into the carrier wars, because I have found over the years that it all depends on YOU the consumer. If you live or spend most of the cell phone use time in the city, some carriers fair better than others, and vice-verse for the sub-burbs & rural areas. No, what I'm comparing now is the features of the two phones, and again, it's quite simple. FOR ME, I found that the iphone operating system, speed & growth far exceeded the BB. Let's do the comparisons head to head.

Both phones were compared for size,design,speed,Apps,reliability,user friendly The Blackberry took "3 stars" for size,reliability & being user friendly while the iphone cleaned up with "6 stars" for all categories.

Bottom line, for two years I tested the sending & receiving of documents & spreadsheets, both with & without images. I tested the speed to which both phones open apps & processed tasked. I even compared the availability of new ground-breaking apps(yes game apps too) and features. In all of these comparisons, the iphone came out on top. It was something I originally was not ready to accept cause with some people like me, I don't like to "change" certain things. But the nail in the coffin for the BB was ONE MAJOR fall back. When the new age of "payment processing" hit the market, company's like Square, Intuit, & a now a few others, designed their initial system with only the iphone & androids in mind. The inability for me to accept credit card payments through my BB was one of the motivating factors to even looking in the direction of the iphone. With a system that increased my POS numbers drastically by a cool 55%, it was clear to me that the blackberry was being left behind. Yeah, BB kept up with the touch-screen revolution on some models, threw out it own messenger & managed it's way into a verse in Hip Hop Mogul Jay Z's Venus vs Mars "Hov's a Blackberry Bold, Shawty is a Sidekick". But unfortunately, it's just not enough to keep me as a loyal connoisseur of the BB.

So, in closing I'd like to say to the people at RIM, thank you for years of reliable service & a undeniable effort to revolutionize how people do business..but, for now I must put your BB on the shelf with my Cellular One Bag & Block Phone,calculator watch, & PSP. Much Love!
*Feel free to add your OWN comments on YOUR choice of SmartPhones!