Even before the Times ran its story about how BlackBerry users were feeling the shame, I often would tease my wife about hers...except when we were in out-of-the-way locales and she could get a signal when my Android phone could not. I've been a Droid user for about three years now, and I'm quite happy with it. (Translation: my carrier doesn't have the iPhone.) I like the browsing, the apps, the games, the store, it's fun. When we were abroad last summer, and my SIM card died (it was really old), I had to use my wife's Blackberry and I just got so confused by it.
yesterday on my way to work, I listened to ESPN Radio's Mike and Mike in the Morning; co-host Mike Greenberg was discussing his change from BlackBerry to iPhone. In fact, he told a "shame" story that was the final push sending him to Apple: while traveling with co-host Mike Golic, former Notre Dame lineman and current parent of three student-athletes at South Bend, Greenberg took out his BlackBerry on the plane. Golic's wife Chris looked at him and basically asked, you're still using one of those? That was it for Greeny; less than two weeks later, he got the iPhone.
And he got nervous as hell, as his tweets indiciated.
On air, Greenberg complained that he could not text or send e-mail easily on the iPhone; the auto-correct functions create bizarre texts that read like dadaist poetry. the tiny keyboard icon of the iphone, without the physical bumps of the similarly small BlackBerry keypad, does not appeal to Greenberg, or a lot of still-loyal Blackberry users. (There are still about 90 million of them.)
And therein lies a crucial distinction that Marshal McLuhan would have loved to consider. The iPhone is essentially a visual/audio experience; you check your location on the maps, watch video, listen to music, play games that involve sliding your fingers on the screen rather than punching arrows one way or the other like in old computer games. (No wonder I'm not so great on the PacMan apps for Droid and iPad: the joystick of the old arcade came gave me the feel of a throttle that sliding one's finger cannot possibly duplicate.)
The BlackBerry, on the other hand, is a tactile experience. No one uses it to watch videos -- hell, when I send youtube links or videos to my wife, she can't see them! It's not a music player; the only real audio function is, of course the phone. its central resource is the tactile one of typing tiny keys to send e-mails, texts, and their famous BBMs -- BlackBerry Messaging, which allows all these "shamed" BlackBerry users to send free messages to each other. It is certainly true that a physical keyboard makes for easier message-ing, but that's largely, I think, a function of the tactile nature of the device.
(I suppose their might be a sensual as well as sensory component to this...some people like touching, some like watching...? )
My point here is simply to consider the smartphone environment from a relatively different point of view. Lastly, I should note I feel I've got both worlds working well for my Droid: a functional touch-screen and a slide-out real keyboard. Yes, it's probably a bit bulkier than either the iPhone or the Blackberry, but I believe I get a lot of the features of Apple with the easy, tactile-textual strength of the Blackberry.
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