It all goes down to this. It's personal preference. Some people like the iPhone (rather the iGadget). Some people like the blackberry. And some people like treos and some people like windows mobile. It's all about personal preference and what you want/need the phone for. Personally, I own a blackberry because it's the only smartphone out there that will natively sync to novell groupwise. If the iPhone or WM would sync to groupwise without the ridiculous amount of work I have to do to get my appointments on my iCal calendar, then I would consider the iPhone.

i agree with you, because i have a macbook and i absolutely love the ease of use on it, and i think that iphone is a great phone, but just not for me and what i need in a smartphone,but im sure apple will do a great job in making it a "24/7" smartphone within the next couple years

Yes, you nailed it. This is a very good analogy. To look at it from another angle, our discussion is similar to arguing which computer platform or OS is better Windows or Mac. If I'm not mistaken, the debate is still open for as long as they exist.

The only difference here is that, historically, there are more "windows"-like devices in a mobile world, so there is a better choice .

In the reference to the ease of use and intuitive UI, using the iPhone is like entering the house through the doors instead of the (many) windows. Not that there aren't plenty of devoted window-lovers and power-window-climbers, he-he.

I don't love the navigation of the address book, but i hear people complaining about it while at the same time NOT using favorites... Ummm, use the favorites. I also don't really understand the issues people have when trying to SMS someone and having to use the address book. I text maybe 10-15 people regularly, thats probably around 90% of my texting. I assume that's pretty normal, but who knows. I don't need to go to my address book to get a text to those people, I have threaded texts so I can just pick up the conversations from the SMS app. At most you're scrolling one finger flick's worth.

Another thing...just like with Mac OS X not focusing on business users and concentrating on user experience, Apple is doing the same thing with iPhones and it is helping them market to consumers and get them interested in smartphones.

And let me just add to it that the whole "power user's" motivation to using these "power functions" isn't that they even NEED to, but rather simply that they CAN.

There's no MS Office doc in the world that MUST be edited and emailed within seconds to save an entire project from total collapse. Gimme a freakin break. These people are just pretentious nerds who want to "play" with their "work" from their gadgets. End of story.

I think the iPhone is much more then the entertainment phone. But you have to put the whole thing in perspective:

1. iPhone has been on the market only 1.5 years and there is definitely room for improvement.

2. iPhone is built from the ground up with a human being using it in mind, hence the #1 mission statement for the iPhone (surprise, surprise): THE EASE of USE (and near-zero learning curve).

3. The lack of more advanced features (i.e. mind-boggling messaging or email power-user stuff) is practically entirely due to the point 2 above, not because Apple cannot do it.

4. iPhone is not a product of function. To rephrase the famous words: "Dorothy, we are not in the 20th century anymore". These days users need more then just a function. Many tech reviewers fail to realize this and endlessly compare iPhone with various models function to function.

I would define the iPhone as the "engineering work of art for the mobile connoisseur", if you will

that just proves kevin's point on iphone being an entertainment phone and blackberry being a messaging phone

The iphone is probably an average cell phone as far as calls go. The Curve and the 8800 are top of the line. I don't know about the Bold or (crappy) Storm.

Oh... and battery life. Forget about not charging your BB for 3 days. I have to charge my iphone multiple times through the day if I use it as much as I used to use my BB.

And I'd be really interested to see if anyone claims that it is the best ever has really tried any other smartphones. I actually think the Nokia's are better at email and texting than the iphone too. But they have their own issues. Even the Centro is great at some of this stuff. I've tested alot of different devices and I think they all have strengths and weaknesses and some are better than others for certain niches.

btw who needs a backspace, better yet a calculator, with that zippo HAHAHA

http://www.youtube.com/user/Maverick373

Not really, the phone is just one app out of 10,000.