One thing that always draws me back is the battery life. Both Android and iPhone have lousy battery life, usually only making it through a day on limited usage. I constantly finding myself making changes to settings, such as disabling GPS, 3G, and/or Bluetooth, and monitoring what the phone is doing just to conserve battery life. On a BlackBerry, I don't have to do that. I can leave all that stuff on and make it through almost 3 days on one charge.

The only thing I wish BlackBerry had that iPhone and Android have is the wide range of apps. I'm sorry, but I'm the type of guy Caspan is describing: enjoying trivial and time wasting apps, though I do use some productive ones. I can get the productivity from a BlackBerry, but I miss the games and apps from the iPhone. I miss the variety of games, the graphics, and apps as trivial and pointless as a piano that makes cat noises.

But despite the app thing, it would not be a deal-breaker, and if I had to choose between an iPhone and a BlackBerry, it would sure as hell be the BlackBerry.

They are a bunch of people in a grate big huge field that have no idea what to put in it so other exploit that and sell them stupid trinkets to fill the field up and make a few bucks.

If you are a iPhone user tell me how many actual application you have bought (paid real money for) that are productive and have something to do with some kind of addition to society.

- lousy security (frankly none)

- crappy managment
- time wasting apps
- personal usage that eats away any productivity benefit (games, useless apps)

I don't look down from a Blackberry perch though, I also use an iPhone 4 and have all the latest Androids (heck we still get Windows Mobile device in) and we're just talking about two totally different markets.

it's like Dell XPS compared to Dell Inspiron. Of course a CONSUMER is going to drool over the nicer hardware on the XPS. How many large corporations are deploying iPhone 4? Not many – Apple forgets to add in all their marketing any growth they have is where personal liable is allowed. They might have a number of companies “evalutating it, or a pilot” going on but it seldom results in any major migration. It's brought in for the “my gadget is bigger then yours” executive set but we continue to deploy Bold's and Curves by the truckload. Hell years after putting our BES in we average 100 new devices a month! If / when the economy ever turns around RIM has the infrastructure in place when spending returns. And in case anyone forgets they now have a free BES (Express) that is very appealing to anywhere that doesn't have robust security needs.

So is the Torch everything and the be all smartphone? No. Is it a nice upgrade and brings new features to enterprise users? – YES. I was always puzzled why such a security focused device trickled into the consumer space as frankly it's not designed at all for the typical soccer mom. It's focus is messaging / PIM. The funny thing is every single media outlet is fixation on Apps, mobile interest when the real growth driver the past 3 years has been TXT messaging. It's exploded in usage and Blackberry fits that need. It's on every carrier, is pretty inexpensive and to same some $$ BBM BB to BB is under your data plan.

Sorry I'm rambling but I'm tired of blogs and media expecting RIM to come out and be Apple. It's not in their DNA, they get blasted for offering new features to their large user base (which is really not shrinking as much as media likely to spin). The irony is Apple gets a pass for things any other smartphone maker would be railed about:

- ongoing security issues
- faulty design
- single carrier (states)
- limited form factor

On my Berry, I can watch YouTube, get email, check Facebook, MySpace and Twitter (via Twibble). The native browser sucks, but I use Bolt and don't have a problem. I listen to music, take pictures and videos.

I also love how the Berry supports basic, but important things like turning itself on and off at scheduled times, extensively customizable sound profiles, the ability to make an MP3 a ring/text tone, copy/pasting text natively between apps.

And yes, the keyboard and the red light are important too.