I really have to question the whole corporate email thing where many say the BlackBerry shines. I very often get an email in which someone is calling my attention to many areas with highlights or different colors. They will add notes for example and put them in red or highlight. The reality that iPhone email is pretty much the same as desktop email is a world of difference for me. BlackBerry is adding some of this, but it's just not the same. I don't agree about email being better on the BB at all anymore. I think the iPhone email experience is by far better.
I also feel the same way about the web. I never used the web on my BB. Or when I did, it was a rare thing. But now I use it all the time. And not just for browsing as you might thing. I use it for web-based applications. Some of which work quite well. I have one subscription to MintFly which is $35 a year use of a connector app that taps into SalesForce.
A while back I said it would be about the applications. I said developers would flock to the iPhone and gain a tremendous amount of their business from the iPhone. Here is a clip from an article that appears in MacWorld which mentions the success one developer is having compared to what he had before the iPhone.
Quote:
For example, Pandora Media began offering its Internet radio application for most other mobile platforms, through carriers, about 18 months ago, Pandora CTO Tom Conrad said. That resulted in about 12,000 paid monthly subscriptions to the service, he said.
xxx8220;In six days, we had 350,000 installs on the iPhone,xxx8221; Conrad said. A key factor was that the App Store let the company give away its client and support its service through ads. On other devices, Pandora has had to use carriersxxx8217; monthly subscription model, he said.
Nearly 1 million Facebook users have downloaded the social-networking companyxxx8217;s application to their iPhones, according to Jed Stremel, director of mobile at Facebook. And Loopt, a location-based social-networking startup, reached 100,000 iPhone downloads only about a week after the App Store opened. The average iPhone user also is 47 times as active on Loopt as those on other types of phones, said Loopt cofounder and CEO Sam Altman.
xxx8220;You can make such a beautiful app, and itxxx8217;s so nice to use, so quickly, on the iPhone,xxx8221; Altman said.
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The issue raised of running multiple apps is mostly solved in my opinion. The only real app I can see needing such functionality is IM software, or software where an alert is needed as you do other things. Apple's que forward technology solves this problem. It should also be noted that Apple's phone can and does run multiple apps at once. I can listen to my music or audio book while typing up an email. And if a call comes in, I will get the call. And the 3G version of the iPhone works much like a WiFi phone does in that using data doesn't shut the phone down from receiving a call. Likewise I can be on a call, and still type up an email, do a google search, or otherwise lookup and send information. It truly is like having a tiny computer with you. It's so much more useful to me than my BB was.
I'm also very happy to report that I found a replacement for my favorite BB app, which is ToDoMatrix. The app I now use is OmniFocus. I've been using this for a solid few months as a desktop app. And I have been using it as an iPhone app since the 3G released. Unlike ToDoMatrix, there is a desktop version of the software. And it does have sync but doesn't require a subscription for the sync. I can use my iDisc, or Webdav, or just plain ol email to push updates. OmniFocus is cheaper, by about 1/3rd the price. And because there is no subscription, it is even less. It's also a far more sophisticated application. I think this drives at what the OP is saying. What I have on the iPhone is so much better.
As for security, I don't buy that the BB is so much better. The reality is simple. The iPhone works much the same way your corporate PC does in terms of email. You don't have your PCs and Macs using a NOC to send email. The iPhone does not lower the overall security of your company. That's just grasping at straws in my opinion.
Alex Alexzander