John Gruber has been referencing polls and articles about why people prefer Blackberrys rather than an iPhone. I love my iPhone but I can think of a few reasons I’d like to use a Blackberry. Here they are.
The red light that is referred to in the polls/articles, presumably telling you that you have a missed call or text message, is a pretty compelling feature. Gruber calls it nutty. However, my iPhone will chime and vibrate a few times after a call is missed but – other than that – I would have no idea someone called unless I turned the screen on myself. Over the last 3 years I have missed more phone calls and text messages than I’d care to count due to being in the shower, out for a jog or just away from my phone.
The "always" on keypad is something I’m beginning to miss. "Hey, jot down my phone number" someone will demand. With a Blackberry you can immediately begin keying in the number. With an iPhone I’m forced to unlock my phone, go to the phone application, click on the keyboard pane – and then I’m able to enter the phone number. But, from here I can only make the phone call immediately – not save the phone number for later. If I wanted to do that I’d have to add a contact. So I’d move to the contacts pane and begin entering the person’s information into a new contact card. Meanwhile, the Blackberry owner would have moved on with his/her day.
Something that is more related to the iPhone 4 than my previous first-gen iPhone is the silent or vibrate setting. I can barely feel the iPhone 4 vibrate when it is in my pants’ pocket. While the iPhone 4’s ringtone is much louder than my previous first-gen iPhone – in the pocket it is barely noticeable. Add to that the sound of the road and the car stereo and you’ve got the makings for another few missed calls and text messages. From experience with other’s Blackberrys – the vibrate mode on those things are more like a jack hammer. Seriously I think people make milkshakes with these things. That’d be nice.
My reasons are few and not enough to sway my iPhone love but that doesn’t mean a boy can’t dream.
