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Smartphone Showdown: iPhone vs Blackberry vs. Windows Mobile
By crooky | July 23, 2008
A good friend of mine (Reg Nordman from Rocket Builders) e-mailed me the following question yesterday:
“Would you ever buy an iPhone? A Blackberry? Why?”
Since this is a question that a lot of my colleagues ask me, I feel compelled to answer Reg’s question in a rather public fashion. Reg didn’t ask about Windows Mobile devices but I think they should be on the table for comparison as well. I’m also going to talk about open-source phone solutions such as Android.
Note: I am coming at this from the perspective of a small business owner/consultant, not an average consumer or an enterprise user.
I have owned three Blackberries in my time, one Windows Mobile 6 phone (the HTC Touch) and an iPod Touch (which is essentially the same thing as the iPhone except you can’t make calls on it).
1. The iPhone
yes, it comes in knit
After using several of my friends’ iPhones and after jailbreaking my iPod Touch, I can say with confidence that aside from the ability to make calls and a slightly faster processor, there are no differences between the two devices.
The iPhone has several nice features:
- really awesome web browser
- accelerometers that can tell which way you have the device tilted
- multi-touch interface that lets you do things like stretch photos out using your fingers
- lots of third party apps like Google Maps, a tetris clone and 500 mini-games
Do you see a theme emerging? The iPhone does cool stuff. Are they particularily useful stuff from a business perspective? No.
Here are the shortcomings of the iPhone:
- really crappy text input
- mediocre contact management system
- oddball e-mail system (unless you’re already a mac user)
Text input is an absolute nightmare on this thing. I may be exaggerating because I have fat fingers but it’s hard to type. On my old blackberry, I could whip off a blog posting and post it in almost the same amount of time I could do it on my laptop. I’ve tried to do it using my iPod touch and a WiFi connection – it sucks. It took twice as long and my fingers were aching by the time I was done.
The phone part of the iPhone is nothing spectacular. It makes calls. Just like every other cell phone on the market. The iPhone is also very expensive and in Canada, the rate plans are atrocious for this device.
My conclusion from a business perspective: the iPhone is a nice toy that makes you compromise on key business functionality. How often do you need to take pictures, surf the web or listen to MP3s for work? You might do those things while you’re supposed to be working but unless you’re a DJ, I doubt you really need to do those things at work.
Update: August 1, 2008. There’s a great debate raging over on Digg today about whether one should forgo the iPhone in favour of an iPod Touch and any regular phone. As someone who owns an iPod Touch – I think there’s an argument to be made there.
2. The Blackberry
the Blackberry Pearl (left) and Curve (right)
There are many iterations of the Blackberry on the market. I’ve owned three – two with a compact QWERTY keyboard like the Blackberry Pearl and one with a full QWERTY keyboard like the Blackberry Curve.
Right out the gate, I can tell you that if you do a lot of e-mail, forget the compact units like the Pearl. They’ll drive you insane. They use a predicative text algorythm to try and guess what you’re trying to type but it doesn’t always get it right. It’s faster to use the full QWERTY keyboard.
Here are the great things about Blackberries:
- rugged (I had one that got run over by two high octane go-karts on a buddy’s stag and even though it broke into several pieces, I snapped everything back together and it still worked)
- good integration with standard office applications such as Outlook
- good ability to handle attachments
- third party applications
Here’s what’s not so great about Blackberries:
- sometimes not intuitive on how to dial a call, usually no ability to call places like 1-800-EAT-SAND because the number keys don’t correspond to letters (any smartphone with a QWERTY keyboard has this problem – it’s not a Blackberry specific problem)
- they’re not very sexy
- they’re addictive like heroin (so I hear)
I don’t know what else to say. Blackberries are at their core a business device. They’re made for business applications and rapid text input. The web browser on the Blackberry sucks but it’s good enough to look up an address on Google or something like that. Blackberries also have third-party apps for business like the iPhone such as Google Maps.
My conclusion is that the Blackberry is the 800lb gorrilla that has defined the smartphone category (sorry, Treo owners) and devices like the iPhone just can’t compare for business use.
3. Windows Mobile Devices
HTC Touch (left) Plam Treo (right)
I currently own an HTC Touch. It, like the iPhone, has no keyboard and relies on a touch interface to input data and manipulate files. I hate this phone.
Some of the problems are to do with the touch interface and others are to do with the shaky operating system. This phone constantly drops calls when the operating system crashes in the middle of a call. That’s pretty embarassing, let me tell you.
There are a wide range of smartphones that run on Windows Mobile including the Palm Treo, the Samsng Blackjack, the HP iPAQ, all of the HTC smartphones (like the Touch and the Diamond) and the Motorola Q.
Many of these phones have QWERTY keyboards like the Blackberry and the only difference is the operating system – in this case, Windows Mobile.
Here are the great things about Windows Mobile Smartphones:
- Excellent integration with Windows if you’re a PC user
- a huge library of third party applications including home-brewed applications
- Good contact management system (it runs a light version of Outlook)
Here are some not-so great things about Windows Mobile Smartphones:
- They try to do to much and it muddles the user interface
- They crash occassionally when you’re in the middle of a call
- The e-mail system is not “push” like the Blackberry – it has to go to your mail server and check for mail periodically instead of getting it instantly. I have mine set to check every five minutes – hasn’t been a problem so far.
- Annoying pop-up reminders for unread e-mails
I think my experience with Windows Mobile devices has been tained by the HTC Touch (my current phone). I have other friends who swear by their Treos and Motorola Qs. I still stand by my comment that there’s almost too many features on these phones and they tend to trip over one another. I’m not sure if the OS crash during phone calls is a hardware or a software problem.
My conclusion: I think Windows Mobile Smartphones are a serious competitor for Blackberries but they’re not quite there yet. I’d hesitate to pick one of these phones over a Blackberry because of some of the issues I’ve mentioned.
4. Android
You might have heard rumours that Google was going to start making cell phones. That’s not true. They are, however, working on a Linux-based phone operating system called Android.
I’ll let the guys at Google explain Android for you:
I’m excited to see what happens with Android. I wouldn’t be surprized to see some Android-based phones showing up in 2009.
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Aaron “Crooky” Cruikshank is the Principal and Founder of Friuch Consulting. He has written professionally about science and technology for over ten years.
Topics: Business of Consulting, Technology | 21 Comments »
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July 24th, 2008 at 1:40 pm
You can actually dial numbers like 800-EAT-DIRT from your blackberry. You press alt and the letters you need. Theres really nothing BB cant do, if you put your mind to it. :-)
July 25th, 2008 at 10:46 pm
Damn it Tom! Where were you years back when I needed to figure this out?
July 31st, 2008 at 9:12 am
I was a dedicated Blackberry 8800/8310 user the past 2 years, and with new employment I was forced to switch to a WM6 phone, and got an HTC Tilt (AT&T). A very nice phone, but too much for it’s own good. It has great interface, full pop out keyboard, tilt screen (mini-laptop look!), can carry on a phone call and surf the internet at the same time(something no BB or iPhone can do), is 3G capable, etc. The iPhone can’t even run more than one application at a time! On the downside, in the past 2 months of being back on WM6, i’ve completely wiped and reset the device probably 5-6 times because of application corruption. I’m constantly finding myself soft reseting it daily due to application lock up, and battery life is very disappointing. Something I never had to worry about with my BB’s. Ultimately, the BB is the hands down best business tool, most secure, and reliable to have. If my company new how much time I spent fiddling and figuring out how to integrate it into my daily business, they would drop their jaw. I can only imagine how many non-tech users we have that spend even more time, or just put the phone away and don’t even use it. So to rank for business needs 1, 2 and 3, it would be BB, WM, and then iPhone. If for personal needs and entertainment, most people might reverse the order. With the upcoming Bold and Thunder (iPhone competition!) release slated this year (well, Thunder might not make 2008), RIM is really pushing them selves into covering all markets for all things, and for sure will put a lock on the Business market.
August 7th, 2008 at 11:09 am
I think the application lockup is the thing that pisses me off mroe than anything. Thanks for the input Patrick.
August 18th, 2008 at 6:26 am
The original iPhone can do everything while on a call that does not require the cell radio. So, it could browse the web on WiFi…
The 3G iPhone can use the cell radio for browsing while talking…
3G GSM phones can make calls and transfer data over the cell radio simultaneously.
I have never handled an iPod Touch, so I am not exactly sure of which apps from the iPhone it has included. Are you basing your dislike of the iPhone keyboard on something like the Notes app or something else? The few apps that don’t use the auto-correct/predictive features are much harder to use. The magic of the iPhone keyboard is when you type utter crap and it miraculously determines the right word. I used a Cingular 8525 for a bit over a year before getting the original iPhone. The 8525 has a physical qwerty keyboard and I was running WinMo 6. I can type just as fast on the iPhone…
September 8th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I actually have a jailbroken iPod Touch with all of the iPhone apps on it. I have used applications on it with the predicative typing feature. It still sucks. I got rid of my last BlackBerry for the same reason. Anything short of a full qwerty, tactile keyboard on a smartphone is half-assed for business.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:52 am
The BlackBerry is a usability nightmare. Its web browser SUCKS; Opera Mini on my Nokia 6300 is MUCH better.
Its only point going for it is that its email works well. Works, but the interface is so ugly it hurts. The fonts are ugly. The menus are cryptic. Message formatting is vastly inferior to Pine running on a 30 year old VT-100 terminal.
So it’s a good instant messaging terminal. It’s a very poor phone, and completely useless as a web browser.
Iphone might be inferior as an email tool, but its web browser is outstanding. Scratch that, it’s the only mobile one that’s actually usable.
My advice to BlackBerry would be to fire your GUI team, and by fire I mean firing squad. Or hire one to begin with.
September 9th, 2008 at 10:14 am
I have to disagree with you about BB’s usability. I agree that the web browser is pretty crap. However, like I said at the beginning of this article, I was reviewing these phones for business use, not for recreational/personal use. E-mail has to work 100% on whatever smartphone you use for business because that’s the lion’s share of what you’re doing during the day.
The phone features on BB’s are great. No different that any other smartphone on the market.
I don’t know where you are getting this idea that BB’s are poor phones. They’re not.
Yes, the BB GUI needs some tweaks but to call it a “usability nightmare” is a stretch.
November 11th, 2008 at 12:33 am
yup.. Operting System’s fight has begun….
November 17th, 2008 at 7:53 am
having never had an iphone or bb, I only know that my palm centro works wonderfully. Even my vpn client works nicely at work. I text message about three thousand messages per month, talk several hundred and browse several hours per day. I’ve NEVER had a problem….makes me think you guys don’t have a clue as to wtf you’re doing!
December 5th, 2008 at 6:09 pm
The host sounds exactly like Christopher Walkin…
January 28th, 2009 at 12:32 pm
Hey White Trash!
Just because you’re having luck with a Windows Smart Phone doesn’t mean they’re all great or that we’re stupid. I’m a power user. The Windows Mobile device I had was a piece of shit.
Other people that I know that have Windows Mobile phones agree. That’s all I’m saying.
Apt nick name, btw.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Hey Aaron,
I realize that I’ve jumped in a bit late but you do realize that a Palm Centro isn’t a WM device don’t you? You might be a “power user” but you don’t seem to know your phones.
I have an iPhone now and have had many different WM phones and there are things they could both learn from each other. But honestly I’ve never had a problem with either platform. Each just had things it did better than the other (well the iPhone does things better, the WM phones just do more). Honestly I think it has a lot to do with how the user will use the phone. My wife now has my old WM phone (a tilt) and she has problems I never did with it. I don’t think it’s the device as much as the way we handle the phone differently. I think that’s what White Trash was trying to say. Spend less time trying to be offeneded and you’ll be much happier.
March 10th, 2009 at 11:25 am
Hey Jon,
Oh no! I forgot to backcheck to see what OS a device I don’t give a shit about is running? Clearly I’m a noob then. You sure showed me. LOL
To speak to your point – I think you’re right but I also think that a device that isn’t intuitive and slows people down is not a very good device.
Thanks for the philosophical pointer though Jon. How’s that working out for you?
March 10th, 2009 at 11:56 am
Well “crooky” since you said that he was having luck with WM I thought perhaps knowing which OS he was using might help you. Wasn’t trying to “show” you. Just thought perhaps you could benefit from the knowledge. But you clearly wanted to be offened by his post (since if you have problems with WM and he’s speaking about Palm he obviously isn’t addressing you).
Well I’ve known a number of “power users” most with BB, but the ones with Windows never had an issue with it. More casual users (like my wife) have. I think a lot of it has to do with your comfort level with technology. A non technical business person would probably be better off with a BB than WM (though MS is moving to change that).
And the first step to recovery is admitting your a noob. Good job.
And BTW, I’m pretty hard to offend, so I guess it’s going pretty well for me :D
March 10th, 2009 at 12:00 pm
You’re an asshole Jon. Just drop it.
March 10th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Aaron,
LOL, you’re funny :D
March 10th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Finally! Something we can agree on!
March 10th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
I thought we agreed on the main point. :D
Each operating system is going to have its niche. Honestly I don’t think the iPhone is powerful enough to call it a smart phone (all phones are pretty smart these days but still..). That’s not to say the hardware couldn’t be used for one, but the OS is too limiting (I love my iPhone, but that doesn’t make it a smart phone). And I understand why it doesn’t do all the things a Windows Mobile phone can. But it wasn’t intended to do those things. It is more of an entertainment phone. BB will probably dominate the business user market for a long time, WM offers a good option. One thing I think is a must for the WM phone though is a QWERTY keyboard. The virtual keyboard for WM is way too small to be useful (the biggest flaw of the HTC Touch). I am very interested in the FUZE. Not only does it have the new Touch Flow 3D for better fingertip use but also has a VGA screen. Though why HTC insists on the 2.8” screen is lost on me. I can log into a server remotely with WM but I’ve then got to scroll around so much because I’ve got a tiny screen/resolution it makes it almost impossible to use. The screen is one of the biggest benefits of the iPhone for me (it does also handle video much better than the TILT). Plus, the screen is glass, not plastic. That means less scratches.
It does take a while to get to some things in WM but not any longer than it takes to get to some of the apps on the iPhone (with 6 screens of icons).
Honestly I would like a would like to have a Sony Windows Mobile iPhone (Sony for the excellent cameras they’re putting in phones these days with the cybershot phones) with Garmin GPS software. Alas, I don’t think that will happen.
BTW, hope calling me an A-hole helped. It made me laugh :D
March 10th, 2009 at 3:33 pm
I take it back Jon. You’re all right. LOL.
I like the idea of a Sony/Apple collaboration. They used to have some hardware agreements back in the mid-90s, didn’t they?
I thought Sony used to supply the monitors for the bulk of their desktops…
They should be able to get some kind of hardware agreement going though.
March 10th, 2009 at 4:06 pm
LOL, Thanks
Hmmm, I don’t know about any collaborations, but then I didn’t pay much attention to Apple until the iPhone (I actually hate the navigation on the standard iPod and perhaps I’m the only one, but I’ve never had a problem with 2000, XP or Vista).
I do know that Samsung has made their monitors in the past. Don’t know for how long or if they still are. I actually seem to remember some news about Sony trying to grab Apple customers with things like online music stores.
Sony and Apple have solid hardware and OS platforms, I think a collaboration of some kind would benefit both. As long as they didn’t try to fight for top billing (is it a Sony or an Apple phone?). Which of course, they would. I would be very interested in any product they put out though.