Iphone or Blackberry: your advice please

[Peter 14.7]

Dear Tech Heads

Need your advice....

My company (I own) runs Blackberry phones, we are changeover point, there is a call from the (younger) staff to go to Iphones and Wife wants an I Pad.

Our scope is:

We need to call each other free of charge;
We need to search easily for contacts;
We need to see and send emails a lot from out phones easily;
All as cheap as possible;
We are in construction so no technical experts here so easy to use and set up:
They must be reasonably robust.
All males users.

So with that scope what are your thoughts? Issues?

Thanks in Advance.. Peter 14.7

 

[DaveM]

Hey Peter, something our clients ask us all the time (IT outsourcing/support provider).

For smartphone functionality and usability such as web browsing and email formatting, iphone.

For battery life, durability and tactile keyboard, blackberry.

Over the past 3 years we have seen the number of blackberry devices supported drop dramatically, only 4 clients now have BES servers running. Almost all clients have gone to iphones.

The biggest gripe they have with them is battery life, but with a car charger people overcome that issue easy enough.

We have numerous clients in the construction industry and all but 1 are now on iphones, the last is tossing up between iphone and samsung/android. Blackberry isnt getting a look-in on their renewal.

Also consider a BYO phone policy. With ActiveSync on Exchange, anyone can use their personal phone to receive work emails, so the need to deploy phones just for email access is greatly reduced.

 

[Propertunity]

iPhone definitely.

Though they are not overly robust (screens are glass and can break if dropped wrongly). Son #2 has broken 3 iPhone screens. Dunno why they don't make them out of plastic??

Free calls will be a function of the network provider you are on.

Sms text iPhone to iPhone (when connected to the internet) are free - as they don't count. Facetime calls are free too (I think??) but I don't use this facility on mine.

 

[Jake D]

My thoughts might be more useful for someone setting up from scratch, rather than making some changes in an ongoing business, but it thought I'd share anyway.

We need to call each other free of charge;
This obviously has more to do with your service provider than your handset hardware.
We need to search easily for contacts;
Android, or more specifically, gmail contacts is awesome when it comes to contact sharing and syncing (And calendar too)
We need to see and send emails a lot from out phones easily;
I'm all about gmail here, too. Can be very easy to set up with your own domain name and email adresses using gmail server. BUT it'd probably be much easier to stick with the server setup you already use
All as cheap as possible;
Iphones cost what they cost, with android there is a lot of competition in the handset hardware market. Can get some great phones dirt cheap.
We are in construction so no technical experts here so easy to use and set up:
I think your decision will have a lot to do wit hwhat you are currently using, especially for oyur email servers. And I can't answer than question.
They must be reasonably robust.

iPhone screens shatter so easily and much more frequently than any other handsets. BUT, the do have the best market for cheap protective cases.
All males users.
iPhones are for girls and teenagers. (probably not)

I'm a big fan on gmail, google calendar, google docs and google contacts. Even for business given their google apps system. But migrating to this system is a big commitment just for some hardware changes.

 

[Aaron_C]

I used to use blackberry but now I use iPhone and the difference is phenomenal, particularly for web browsing.

 

[Ideo]

Android. HTC or Samsung.

Much better option for business usability than an itrendwhore

 

[Peter 14.7]

iPhone definitely.

Though they are not overly robust (screens are glass and can break if dropped wrongly). Son #2 has broken 3 iPhone screens. Dunno why they don't make them out of plastic??

Free calls will be a function of the network provider you are on.

Sms text iPhone to iPhone (when connected to the internet) are free - as they don't count. Facetime calls are free too (I think??) but I don't use this facility on mine.

Thanks to all and this one especially as facetime is good idea as I travel alot and miss my daughter and wife and vice versa. With a IPAD, I assume even easier.

And the free SMS is good as we pay for these now.

Will review in detail but it seems a good idea except the screen issue which I had been told to watch out for. I can simply tell staff, we will go Iphone but you break it, you fix it.

Keep them coming.

Peter 14.7

 

[Rolf Latham]

All males users.

which means ?

ta'rolf

 

[Gremlin]

which means ?

ta'rolf

No need for multitasking functionality? Or so Mrs Gremlin suggests...

 

[Jamie M]

iPhone all the way. Will carry out the functions mentioned and are easy to use.

As prop said though, they're not very sturdy so you'll need to invest in a decent case for each. My wifes managed to smash a few screens. They seem to dive out of her handbag onto the road.....so be careful if you carry a handbag

Cheers

Jamie

 

[RPI]

I would go android, better syncing with office environment, but biggest thing is you can get some tough construction type android phones. Even the samsung galaxy has more drop resistant screen than Iphone.

 

[boomtown]

Blackberry if you need to type long emails. iPhone keyboard is awful.

Otherwise no reason to stay with BB.

And yes this being posted with an iPad.

 

[Jake D]

Facetime is only one option for video calling. All of them are free on all platforms. (apart from data usage, of course) Google voice or skype are two examples off the top of my head.

Same goes for iPhone's "Free SMS", there are a million similar services for android, windows phone and blackberry.

 

[Shaneelastic]

id go for iphone. my work has just moved from blacberrys to iphones and wow, what a difference.

 

[Terry_w]

iphones are crap. they are impossible when it comes to transferring files and deleteing things. you need to set up itunes to do some things and even then it is very complex - justtoomeabout 4 hours to work around the inability to delete a photo album which was uploaded to the phone via different comouter.

also apple restricts which sort of videos you can use. no flash.

samsung using android is so much easier. plug it in to your computer and it can be seen as another hard drive and files dragged across and copied.works well with gmail too.

 

[Paul Thewlis]

No contest - iphone is so far ahead of Blackberry. I have everything synced between office and phone - email, CRM, blog, Facebook, Linkedin, Skype etc. Plus all the apps are great for business and personal use. Could never do this properly with Blackberry. We always had hardware failures with our Blackberry's

Regards
Paul

 

[The Y-man]

Iphones not as secure once stolen.

Blackberries can be wiped remotely from BES.

The Y-man

 

[pennyk]

the problem with iphone is that once you have one apple product, you pretty much sign your life away with apple.

I would go for Samsung, and you have all the features, but with a lot more flexibility in what you can connect to.

 

[geoffw]

I do like my iPhone. Very much.

Having said that I have had some problems in the past. They seem to be pretty much solved now. Except perhaps for battery life which has shortened in the newest model/OS.

I haven't looked much at Android. I've invested too much in Apps to switch easily.

There seems to be a fierce loyalty- Android and Apple owners pretty much believe in their product to the exclusion of all others.

I would definitely get insurance. After daughters have dropped/lost phones it's now a necessity.

As mentioned there are products like Skype which allow face to face chat. You probably have to do it over wifi.

Two must have product for me.

1. Dropbox. Allows you have a seamless folder which can be shared with phones, macs and PCs.

2. Logmein. Allows you to remote into a PC- one which also has Logmein installed. Absolutely indispensable now.

 

[BMan]

@ Penny agreed if you own one apple thing you basically have to use all of them to get everything working good together

@geoff
i dont own an iphone and dont plan to.. its not that i dont like them i think there good and the best thing about it is theres apps for everything and really good support for it
and so simple and easy to use
unlike my nokia N900 (great phone) bad support and bugger all apps

i have now gone to android and find even though i dont like the phone as much i still prefer my user experience as theres so many apps and love the google sync since i use gmail already it works well for me
basically anything half decent apps wise is on either android or apple anyway so thats not a real issue

regarding insurance some Home and Contents insurances cover you if you lose, break your phone or is stolen

agreed dropbox is a good idea and i do have one setup but never got around to using it i really should though would be easier than rembering to take my usb with me

as for remote pc i setup the remote desktop on the pc and then can use an app from the phone or another computer saves having to install stuff on all the pcs (probably different if you use mac though)