Work vs. Play – Microsoft/RIM vs Apple
By Ben Robinson on Saturday, January 24th, 2009 at 1:44 PM PST In Convergence
So I was pondering the other day, and reached the conclusion that the PC/Mobile setup I used to have at home (which was Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT)/Nokia (NYSE: NOK), but is now Apple), is similar to one that I still have at work – that is, I use a combination of WinXP and a BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) at work, yet at home I have Apple O/S on both Laptop and Mobile (MacBook Pro & iPhone).
Those of you that have read my posts on the somewhat tortuous transition from MS to Apple will know that life has been much better (and simpler) since the transition to Apple – and also that the thing that caused me to change was one instance too many of Windows just hanging, and me having to wait +10mins for it to sort itself out!Anyhoo, now I have MS/RIM at work, and Apple at home, I was thinking why not compare? And why not pick out three main points:
Email: So at work it’s Outlook/BlackBerry (Bold), and at home it’s Apple Mail/iPhone. On balance, I would say it’s a very even battle – we have the high-efficiency push mail of BlackBerry, versus the best email client (in terms of rendering) on the iPhone. Since swapping to IMAP servers at home, the difference between performance has narrowed somewhat. But, what edges email handling just in favour of the work setup is the fact that the iPhone email client is prone to crashing and hanging from time to time. Having said that, the lack of proper HTML/rich text email handling on the Bold nearly cost it it’s win, but, for now, Outlook+BlackBerry wins the day!
Winner: work setup
Sync management: If we were talking plainly email sync, then (a) the last category would have been redundant, and (b) the BlackBerry would have won again! However, I am thinking here more of calendar, contacts, and other info sync. Now, the Outlook+BlackBerry setup does sync calendar well, contacts in my experience have been just a bit laggy. Email is done well too – but that’s about it.
The iPhone however does all of the above well, and in addition can handle music, movies, and other categories of media very well – plus, there isn’t a better interface on a mobile device to be able to access what you have sync’d. Therefore, iPhone (home setup) wins!
Winner: home setup
Browsing: this is probably the other key task that I wish to perform on both setups. So at work, the browser of choice is Firefox on the Windows Laptop, plus the in-built browser on the BlackBerry. On the home setup, it’s all-Apple, with the iPhone’s cut-down safari browser, and the MBP’s full safari setup.
Now this IS a close one – since I ported over to Firefox from Internet Explorer some time back, I’ve found it to be the quickest and most flexible browser, bar none. Safari, which I’ve come to recently, seemed to have compatibility problems with certain sites – something I’ve barely encountered with Firefox. I even have Firefox installed on the MBP, just to see how it runs.
But, there has to be a winner – and in this case, it’s tipped in the favour of the home setup by the Mobile side of things – Safari on the iPhone is the best browser of ANY mobile device – bar none.
Winner: home setup
So for the moment, the home setup takes the win, 2-1! But it was a close run thing on these categories of assessment. Of course, there’s a good chance you might disagree, and if so, post us a comment with why. Suggest your own categories for assessment – I can think of a couple of others right now ……
I use outlook on my iphone everyday. I am confused by the first part of your review. It was easy to set up and works great
Let me start by saying that I own 2 iMacs and an iPhone, as well as 2 PC’s running Windows XP, a Tmobile MDA running Windows Mobile 6.1, and a very old Pentium 3 laptop running Windows 7 beta at the moment. I neither love Apple or Microsoft, nor do I hate either of them.
The comparison is obviously flawed, as I don’t think it’s fair to compare a Microsoft & Blackberry vs. Apple. A more fair comparison would be Microsoft vs. Apple. I agree that the iPhone easily has the best Web Browser on the market today, so I concede that point to you. However, to say that the iPhone has the better Sync option is plain false. In my opinion, the iPhone is a big disappointment when it comes to syncing. I have a cheap Nokia phone that can easily sync my contacts over bluetooth with my iMac. You really have to ask yourself why Apple doesn’t offer this option for the iPhone. I would much rather sync contacts and calendar over bluetooth than connect the damn thing to the computer to sync.
As much as I love the iPhone for it’s phenomenal UI, it lacks in so many area’s that would make it a truly Smartphone. My advice to you, like Chocolate, drinking too much of the Apple Kool-Aid is not good for you.
@Al,
How is his personal experience “obviously flawed”? It’s his “own” experience……It can’t be flawed.
Also, it sounds like you have been dipping into the Norwegian Koolag as well. The iPhone is an engineering marvel and changed the face of mobile computing forever. If it wasn’t, companies all over the world wouldn’t be scrambling to copy it. And with 15,000 apps to increase it’s usefulness, the iPhone is the only “computer” I take anywhere now.
Feel free to call me a kool-aid drinking, Reality Distortion Field radiating Fanboy if that makes you feel better. It makes little difference to me.
Just looking through my iPhone springboard, I’d be interested if you could compare for me (since I don’t have access to Blackberry):
GPS features. I like the fact I can set a waypoint on the iPhone using “TakeMeBack”. Great for wandering away from a hotel safe in the knowledge you should be able to find your way back. I really want TomTom to release Navigator for iPhone though, is it already out on Blackberry?
Blogging. Keyboards aside, BlogPress on the iPhone is a very functional client for my purposes. What exists on Blackberry?
WiFi scanner is great for finding networks that don’t broadcast their SSID, then Ping allows ping sweep, and there’s a cool SSH client too. RDP and VNC clients are mostly “okay” on the iPhone. What are network tools like on the RIM device?
The iPhone’s camera may not be the best, but things like Comeks and IconFail allow you to paste on captions and have a bit of a giggle. On the RIM?
The iPhone’s accelerometer can be calibrated and used as a somewhat crude spirit level. RIM?
iPhone allows me to monitor environmental decibel levels (Decibel), tone generate (Sound Check), visually show sounds (Spectrogram) and in a pinch even slate a take (iSlate). Any similar tools on RIM?
I know all the phones have games, but some of my faves on iPhone are PuzzleQuest, Warfare Inc, Mohjong, MotoChaser, Asphalt4, Othello/Reversi, Doom, Quake, Connect Four, Solitaire, Pairs, CrazyTanks and iShoot. I guess there’s plenty of entertainment available with RIM, especially since I saw plans that they will be opening a “me too” app store soon (March 09)