Absolutely Beautiful! The Apple IPhone
I like to invest in companies I know well. Two of my favorite companies I know very well because I buy their products over and over. These are Apple and Research in Motion. Both are cutting edge technology leaders in their areas of expertise. I have used a Blackberry for most of the last five years, and find it to be almost unbeatable. I tried the Palm 600, 650, the Motorola Q, my wife’s Sidekick and a couple of other phones I only held on to for a day. Hands down, the Blackberry takes it on email quality. With the Blackberry Pearl, my current Blackberry, it is the best experience to date.
The reason I am writing this is I am a bit dazzled by this online demonstration of the features of the new Apple IPhone. Okay, I was sold on the fact that I would never contemplate changing over to the IPhone as nothing seems as useful at the BlackBerry.
In the past two years I have become a real Ipod fan. I went from thinking it was an odd contraption only used by those barely over 16 years old to realizing it was about the world’s greatest way to store your music. I have two 4 gig Nanos, and I have just about everything I have ever wanted to own on the ITunes on my computers.
In the last two months I have become a huge AppleTV fan. With a 20 month old and a three year old at home, I have found it the best way to play those constant DVD’s they require to stay entertained. With a program called HandBrake on my Mac Mini (yes, I own one of those, too!), I can burn my DVD’s to an external hard drive that is connected to my Mac and stream it to any one of my three televisions in the home on demand. That is three AppleTV units we have purchased. We are all addicted to it.
I just have developed a trust to Apple and their products. Between my home and office I own four Macs, two Ipods, three AppleTVs and a bunch of Apple software. So with the trust comes this expectation that the IPhone will be as good as the AppleTV, as good as the Ipod and as good as the Macs I own.
The real issue for me is this: Do I trust Apple enough to move away from my BlackBerry Pearl? Do I trust it enough to deal with Cingular (the evil SBC/ATT)?
Another issue: There are two great versions of the BlackBerry I would really, really consider.
Here are my BlackBerry Dream Phones…
This is the BlackBerry 8800 – Probably my second choice
The BlackBerry Curve – My First Choice for BlackBerry… Although not yet at my carrier… T-Mobile
I use T-MOBILE. I love using T-MOBILE. I will not use Sprint (bad experience), Verizon (billing from hell – but I use their USB internet card for my laptop), and I have had the worst experience with the old SBC / ATT / CINGULAR. It was as an SBC customer and some confusion (on their part) with a mix of business and personal lines.
My take right now:
Stay with BlackBerry. Possibly get the Apple IPhone for my wife so I can see if it really, really is the best option for me. I hate the idea of giving SBC (wait, ATT… yea, right – they will always be SBC to me!) any business at all. A truly great Iphone could change that dislike, but it will have to be beyond just good.
It all comes down to email for me. I have BlackBerry email, plus I have Google business email application on my Blackberry. That is two ways to get my email and view my email – an issue when some of it only displays in html or only displays in text.
If I stay with BlackBerry, I am going to get the Curve. Love it, and love its features.
As for the stocks, both are a buy. Cramer says so. I say so. Have none presently, but will likely hold both at the right price within weeks.
