Another point, is that if media playback, touch screens, and virtual keyboards are such a detriment to the iPhone in the business end, why in the heck would BlackBerry even develop the Thunder? All these Blackberry supporters keep saying you do not want a virtual keyboard or touch screen or whatnot, but you are excited about those same exact things when talking about the Thunder. That tells me you are blindly supporting a brand, not a device.

One last thing, is that RIM needs to start getting their stories straight. I am a cell phone retailer, mostly BlackBerries, and we just had a meeting with BlackBerry representatives earlier today. In this presentation, they took 20 minutes to talk about the iPhone, which lets you know everything you need to know about how nervous RIM is about Apple. When listing the top ten things that are bad about iPhones, the rep mentioned the virtual keyboard and touch screen, but then mentioned that the iPhone cannot send SMS/MMS (half-true, will concede there is no MMS, but there is most certainly SMS), there is no push email (outright lie),initial and monthly cost is high (iPhone is the same price as our Curve 8320, cheaper than our 8800 line, and monthly rate is the exact same as blackberry), and also said that blackberry had an advantage because you can use third party apps. Again, not sure how that is an advantage since Apple has by far the most diverse, fastest growing community of third party applications in just a few short weeks.

Get your stories straight, RIM, and stop blatantly lying to the people selling or buying your phones, we are not as dumb as you think.

Another point, is that if media playback, touch screens, and virtual keyboards are such a detriment to the iPhone in the business end, why in the heck would BlackBerry even develop the Thunder? All these Blackberry supporters keep saying you do not want a virtual keyboard or touch screen or whatnot, but you are excited about those same exact things when talking about the Thunder. That tells me you are blindly supporting a brand, not a device.

One last thing, is that RIM needs to start getting their stories straight. I am a cell phone retailer, mostly BlackBerries, and we just had a meeting with BlackBerry representatives earlier today. In this presentation, they took 20 minutes to talk about the iPhone, which lets you know everything you need to know about how nervous RIM is about Apple. When listing the top ten things that are bad about iPhones, the rep mentioned the virtual keyboard and touch screen, but then mentioned that the iPhone cannot send SMS/MMS (half-true, will concede there is no MMS, but there is most certainly SMS), there is no push email (outright lie),initial and monthly cost is high (iPhone is the same price as our Curve 8320, cheaper than our 8800 line, and monthly rate is the exact same as blackberry), and also said that blackberry had an advantage because you can use third party apps. Again, not sure how that is an advantage since Apple has by far the most diverse, fastest growing community of third party applications in just a few short weeks.

Get your stories straight, RIM, and stop blatantly lying to the people selling or buying your phones, we are not as dumb as you think.

* existing “standard” that everyone already knows the ins, outs and pros and cons for admins, domestic and international road warriors, etc. This is a big deal in larger organizations. I need experienced people on the help desk. I need to know what to do when my ceo’s mobile device goes on the fritz in Brazil.

* My BB 8830 lasts for nearly two days of heavy usage. When everything goes pear shaped, that battery lasts from the first 0500 call to the wrap-up at 2300 with some to spare. Not to mention that I can just swap it out if I need to (woops, guess I mentioned it anyway).

* Two words: Voice Recognition. A very nice, no voice training req’d, voice dialing capability is built into the bb. Much safer and easier to use when your hands are, or should be, doing something else — like driving? (Apple filed voice recognition patents not too long ago. So maybe this will be addressed in the near future.)

* Someone has already mentioned device mgmt. It remains to be seen if the 3g’s new device mgmt capabilities are “good enough”.

* Keyboard issues are already mentioned. Come on, fess up, how many times have you had to use your bb because your laptop had become inoperable for some reason?

* Lack of multiple carrier support. There’s a reason that Verizon is as big as it is. The iPhone won’t be changing that any time soon. Just because it is easier to have one wireless carrier in a region doesn’t mean that all of the other good reasons for wireless carrier choice go away.

I’m sure I’ve missed something — maybe even something important. But I think the point is made. Is the iPhone a great smartphone? Yes. Does it show the market some things that could be done lots better? Absolutely. Does it make all of the other smartphones obsolete? Well, maybe I have an IQ problem (as I’m sure many will delightedly agree), but I don’t see it quite yet.

I think the Blackberry has a good future ahead of it. If Apple addresses all of the above before RIM has a viable competitor? That could get interesting.

* existing “standard” that everyone already knows the ins, outs and pros and cons for admins, domestic and international road warriors, etc. This is a big deal in larger organizations. I need experienced people on the help desk. I need to know what to do when my ceo’s mobile device goes on the fritz in Brazil.

* My BB 8830 lasts for nearly two days of heavy usage. When everything goes pear shaped, that battery lasts from the first 0500 call to the wrap-up at 2300 with some to spare. Not to mention that I can just swap it out if I need to (woops, guess I mentioned it anyway).

* Two words: Voice Recognition. A very nice, no voice training req’d, voice dialing capability is built into the bb. Much safer and easier to use when your hands are, or should be, doing something else — like driving? (Apple filed voice recognition patents not too long ago. So maybe this will be addressed in the near future.)

* Someone has already mentioned device mgmt. It remains to be seen if the 3g’s new device mgmt capabilities are “good enough”.

* Keyboard issues are already mentioned. Come on, fess up, how many times have you had to use your bb because your laptop had become inoperable for some reason?

* Lack of multiple carrier support. There’s a reason that Verizon is as big as it is. The iPhone won’t be changing that any time soon. Just because it is easier to have one wireless carrier in a region doesn’t mean that all of the other good reasons for wireless carrier choice go away.

I’m sure I’ve missed something — maybe even something important. But I think the point is made. Is the iPhone a great smartphone? Yes. Does it show the market some things that could be done lots better? Absolutely. Does it make all of the other smartphones obsolete? Well, maybe I have an IQ problem (as I’m sure many will delightedly agree), but I don’t see it quite yet.

I think the Blackberry has a good future ahead of it. If Apple addresses all of the above before RIM has a viable competitor? That could get interesting.

For anyone willing to forgo what BES provides the enterprise clearly has no security requirements as Iphone only has a handful with ActiveSync. We’ve supported Windows Mobile for 3 years and the ratio of users is at least 6 to 1. ActiveSync is just junk and sucks the battery dead. Whomever said there is no cost doesn’t govern the budget as YES Microsoft has a CAL and unless you have the right CAL type you need to pay a seperate CAL for mobile use. T-Support does take a chunk of money and that would be a savings but BES offers a wealth of things you DO NOT get with Iphone and ActiveSync:

Device Management: IT Policy Control, Asset Management, Usage Reporting

3 pretty big things when you are supporting thousands of devices .. I guess that doesn’t matter much to a small shop.

Apple will take a chunk of small business and larger companies who clearly don’t have HPIA,SEC concerns, if anything it will be a supported secondary device as it will be here but not a ‘standard’. I really don’t see what RIM is supposed to answer with, for what they provide they are the top of the pile. From a coolness / marketing perspective they could do sometimes to show that almost everything Apple is hyping they can do .. at the end of the day you need functionality vs style.

You are seeing the effect of lifestyle bleeding into workplace, it’s not just a iphone things. We see people coming and wanting to use Facebook, Youtube and other social networking things in the workplace (where they have at best a marginal business use) It’s not the question if why doesn’t enterprise Iphone the same can be asked why can’t I bring my slick Alienware laptop to work and use that instead of a Thinkpad? IT is and will remain about offering technology we can govern and report a baseline and SLA on. With Iphone right now you cannot.

For anyone willing to forgo what BES provides the enterprise clearly has no security requirements as Iphone only has a handful with ActiveSync. We’ve supported Windows Mobile for 3 years and the ratio of users is at least 6 to 1. ActiveSync is just junk and sucks the battery dead. Whomever said there is no cost doesn’t govern the budget as YES Microsoft has a CAL and unless you have the right CAL type you need to pay a seperate CAL for mobile use. T-Support does take a chunk of money and that would be a savings but BES offers a wealth of things you DO NOT get with Iphone and ActiveSync:

Device Management: IT Policy Control, Asset Management, Usage Reporting

3 pretty big things when you are supporting thousands of devices .. I guess that doesn’t matter much to a small shop.

Apple will take a chunk of small business and larger companies who clearly don’t have HPIA,SEC concerns, if anything it will be a supported secondary device as it will be here but not a ‘standard’. I really don’t see what RIM is supposed to answer with, for what they provide they are the top of the pile. From a coolness / marketing perspective they could do sometimes to show that almost everything Apple is hyping they can do .. at the end of the day you need functionality vs style.

You are seeing the effect of lifestyle bleeding into workplace, it’s not just a iphone things. We see people coming and wanting to use Facebook, Youtube and other social networking things in the workplace (where they have at best a marginal business use) It’s not the question if why doesn’t enterprise Iphone the same can be asked why can’t I bring my slick Alienware laptop to work and use that instead of a Thinkpad? IT is and will remain about offering technology we can govern and report a baseline and SLA on. With Iphone right now you cannot.

I switched on Friday. The iPhone does what I need it to do very well. I have yet to open the manual and have been able to do everything I wanted to do. It is very intuitive. The iPhone UI makes the Blackberry look like a dinosaur. RIM is going to have to do more than out-feature the iPhone, they’re going to have to improve the look and ease of use of the Blackberry OS. Just because someone is an “Enterprise” user does not mean they are blind or don’t care about ease of use.

I have been a Blackberry user for 5 years and I don’t think I’m going to miss it much.

At least as far as my company is concerned, Apple is already hurting RIM.

I switched on Friday. The iPhone does what I need it to do very well. I have yet to open the manual and have been able to do everything I wanted to do. It is very intuitive. The iPhone UI makes the Blackberry look like a dinosaur. RIM is going to have to do more than out-feature the iPhone, they’re going to have to improve the look and ease of use of the Blackberry OS. Just because someone is an “Enterprise” user does not mean they are blind or don’t care about ease of use.

I have been a Blackberry user for 5 years and I don’t think I’m going to miss it much.

At least as far as my company is concerned, Apple is already hurting RIM.