Deathmatch rematch: BlackBerry versus iPhone 3.0

InfoWorld - The new iPhone 3.0 OS is now old news, but does its enhancements overcome any advantages that the BlackBerry has over the iPhone? In May, I pitted the BlackBerry Bold in a head-to-head competition against the iPhone 3G, which handily beat RIM's business standard in most areas. After all, the iPhone 3.0 OS enhances the e-mail, calendar, and search functions that many BlackBerry users focus on and that IT loves about the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES).

So, here I revisit the original iPhone-versus-BlackBerry deathmatch, updating it based on the iPhone 3.0 OS's changes. That original comparison said it was time to bury the BlackBerry; the iPhone OS 3.0 simply piles more dirt onto the grave. (If you're curious how the new Palm Pre stacks up against the iPhone, check out our new Pre-versus-iPhone deathmatch.)

[ Dive deep into mobile 2.0 technology with InfoWorld's "mobile 2.0" PDF special report. | Check out the slideshow "Rematch: BlackBerry vs. iPhone, side by side." | BlackBerry fans tell us why they still prefer the BlackBerry over the iPhone. ]

I didn't grow up in my corporate life with either an iPhone or a BlackBerry. For me, a phone is something to make calls with, and a PDA handles my contacts and calendar. But a year ago, I replaced my nearly dead Handspring Palm-based PDA with an iPod Touch and quickly grasped the significance of the "modern" PDA -- the importance, from both a personal and a professional point of view, of having the Web, e-mail, and more at my fingertips. To me the iPod Touch, and by extension the iPhone, was about as productive as a PDA could be, yet I saw BlackBerrys everywhere in conferences and business meetings.

What was it about the BlackBerry that I was missing? Would the iPhone really fall short in a business setting?

To find out, I spent a month with an iPhone 3G and a BlackBerry 9000 Bold (the professional model that RIM recommended as the best to compare to an iPhone) to see how well each would fare in my daily grind. (For the answers to that, see my stories on using the BlackBerry Bold and on using the iPhone 3G as laptop replacements.) In doing so, I also had the chance to compare the two devices in depth: mail to mail, phone to phone, browser to browser, and thumb stroke to touch-tap. In short, I evaluated them based on everything from classic PDA functionality and usability to location-based services and availability of third-party apps. (This feature revisits those findings in light of the new iPhone 3.0 OS.)