iPhone v. Blackberry

The ABA's Law Practice Management Section recently asked me to write the "iPhone" half of an iPhone v. Blackberry series posted on their website.  If you are interested, you can read my article here, and the Blackberry article by Lee Rosen is here.  Lee writes about his personal experiences with both the iPhone and the Blackberry Bold; he ultimately decided that he didn't like either one and returned to his older model Blackberry.

These articles prompted attorney Midland, TX attorney Dale Strauss to respond by writing a defense of the Blackberry Bold, featured as a guest post on the great The Mac Lawyer website.  Dale believes that the Blackberry Bold outshines the iPhone 3G on battery life, e-mail, file storage, notes and tasks and he prefers using a keyboard over a multi-touch interface.  Dale makes some good points, and especially for those people who think they really need a physical keyboard and for whom e-mail is really all they need to do with their smartphone, the Bold is a great choice. 

Of course, it will not come as a surprise that for others, I think that the iPhone is the right choice.  For those who want to take advantage of a virtually unlimited app store that lets one do almost anything one can imagine with a smartphone, use a far superior web browser, use a smartphone to easily sync and play songs, photos or videos, take advantage of a larger screen (which is only possible when a keyboard doesn't always take up half of the face of the device), and do all of this in a device that is small and sleak with a best-in-class user interface design, then the iPhone is the clear winner.  Nevertheless, I am glad to see that the iPhone prompted RIM to improve the Blackberry, prompted Microsoft to improve Windows Mobile, prompted Palm to change the direction of the company with the upcoming Pre, and prompted Google to further refine its new Android operating system.  As the competition improves, Apple will have all the more reason to improve the iPhone.

[UPDATE on 3/1/09:  Mike Elgan at Computerworld has an interesting post on why he switched from the Blackberry Pearl to the iPhone, and there is one overwhelming reason:  third party apps.]

By the way, the Law Practice Management Section of the ABA presents the annual ABA TECHSHOW in Chicago.  This year's show is only six weeks away, and as I have previously written, if you are an attorney interested in technology, this is a great way to get your CLE hours.  The "early bird" discounted registration deadline is right around the corner (February 28th).

Comments

[Kevin Thompson]

Jeff,

As Palm is ending its line of devices which are solely PDAs, I am trying to determine what is my next device. I'm considering IPhone vs. Blackberry. I need a solution that syncs up well to Outlook Notes, to dos, calendar, etc. In your use, how does the iPhone stack up solely as an organizer?

[Jeffrey Richardson]

Kevin,

The iPhone is a great organizer, but that is thanks in part to third party apps. The built in Contacts is fabulous and powerful and does a great job syncing with Outlook. Same goes for the Calendar. The one feature you might find missing is "search" for Calendar -- I hope Apple adds that soon. For other organizer functions such as Notes and To Dos, there are numerous great apps created by third parties. But if syncing with Outlook is essential for you, you might be disappointed. No third party app seamlessly syncs with Outlook, although I believe that a few have found work-arounds.

Thus, if your primary goal is to have a great organizer, the iPhone will be great. But if your primary goal is to have a great organizer that syncs with Outlook, you may be disappointed with To Do and Notes. I hope that Apple fixes this in the next software update (probably this Summer), but for now this is a deficiency, and reflects that fact that Apple has been doing Outlook syncing for only about 8 months. Blackberry, which has been syncing with Outlook for years, currently does a better job than the iPhone with Outlook Notes and Outlook To Dos.

I hope this helps. Keep in mind that even if you are currently only interested in organizer features, there is a good chance that were you to get an iPhone, you would find yourself using it for many many more functions, so much so that the few Outlook syncing shortcomings might not matter to you.

-Jeff

[Kevin Thompson]

Thanks, Jeff. I am still considering the iPhone, but I really do want Outlook syncing of notes and tasks. I used Palm Desktop for years, and went kicking and screaming into using Outlook, but now that I've been using it for a while I don't really want to switch to something else right now. I think I can find multiple third party apps that each individually replicate certain functions, but until I find one that does them all I am less likely to want to switch.

Thanks again for your insights.

[Peter Norman]

Kevin and Jeff,

Though iPhoneOS 3.1 includes Exchange ActiveSync support, as Jeff says, it does not do Outlook Notes or Outlook Tasks. However, there are several apps available on the App Store that provide solutions for this missing functionality:
- TaskData
- IMExchange
- **TaskTask

**NOTE: Notes functionality is included with TaskData and IMExchange but not TaskTask.

Search the App Store on those exact names to have a look - I've bought and used them all. I've been using the iPhone3G since it became available in Canada (July 2008). My work email is Hosted Exchange (using Exchange Server 2003). Each of the apps above work well with my setup.

Rock on!
Peter