I switched from my trusted Blackberry to an iPhone about a month ago.  It was not a change that imageundertook lightly.  It was made after using Blackberries for years.  I was proficient at that platform and very productive on it.  One month later, I cannot believe that it took me three generations of the Apple platform to switch.  The difference is night and day, in a good way.

I will sum it up this way:  I had hundreds of moments with my Blackberry where all that I wanted to do was through it at a wall and be done with it… in the past month, I have had hundreds of times when I actually wanted to pickup my iPhone and use it.  Yup, it is that simple.  The Blackberry was always getting in the way and the iPhone makes work feel like fun.

Now, I am not simply a love struck Apple puppy here.  There are certainly a number of features of my Blackberry that I sorely miss and wish were imitated on the iPhone.  There are:

  • Rapid Navigation.  The BB trackball is a masterpiece of productivity.  You would think that being able to touch the entire screen would speed up navigation, but it does not.  I miss the ability to rapidly get to a place in text.
  • Spell Checking the MS Office Way.  Both the iPhone and BB have competent spell checkers.  The difference is that it is a background feature on the Apple and a foreground one on the BB.  You cannot evoke it with the iPhone.  I miss the comfort of knowing that my email has been checked.
  • Speed Dialing.  Not sure why, but my BB could dial a phone number with all those silly codes after it to access a voicemail system in about a millisecond.  The iPhone seems to dial at a snail’s pace.

On the other hand, there have been a number of features of the iPhone that have pushed my productivity to places that my BlackBerry never dreamed of.  A few big ones are:

  • Web Development.  I can easily create blog posts and administer this website from my iPhone.  No way that was going to occur on the BB.
  • Browser Activity.  The browser on the iPhone is web standard and as capable as my desktop.  The one on the BB is barely usable.  Anything that I can do at my desk, I can do on the iPhone.  That includes shopping, email, web documents, and R&D.  Yesterday, while I was at the mall, I passed time waiting by buying the next four gifts I needed, researching a project for work, and catching up with article reading from two industry publications.  Not possible before.
  • Applications.  The applications for the iPhone are obviously famous, but from an Information Technology Professional perspective, they are simply amazing.  The ability to expand the mobile tool to fit any need within the time that it takes to think of it is a liberating experience.  Yesterday alone, I made it become an alarm clock, convert units, shop eBay, and manage my Netflix queue.  Tomorrow, I am sure that I will come up with three more uses and find three more solutions in the Apple App Store.

Overall, I am obviously very happy with this switch.  It is too bad, too, because I really like my Blackberries.  Honestly, it feels like they gave up innovating about three years ago and have been coasting since then.  I really don’t understand why they did not innovate through duplication after the iPhone came out.  The writing was on the wall on the way the mobile space was moving and I do not see why no one else followed.  At one month, I am very pleased with my switch to the iPhone.  I suspect that readers of this blog would be equally better served as well.

What do you think about this topic?  Do you agree or disagree with me? What mobile do you use? Please share your ideas below.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for February 15, 2010  by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: Weekly Reader

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