I had a touch-screen smart phone for about 3 days. Hated typing on it, as well as trying to enter phone numbers. Always had to look at the screen to see if i was properly hitting the buttons. My sister was handed the BlackBerry Storm (touch screen), by her employer, and she hates it for the same reason.
I have the BB 8703e and yesterday, got a replacement for it, the BB Curve (8330). There are several models of the Curve on the market, and some have very limited features. It varies by cell carrier. This one has some bells and whistles which I really like, but it pretty much took most of the afternoon to learn how to do most everything. I'm loving it thus far. (I had to upgrade b/c the 8703e didn't have expandable memory, and my memory was at max. capicity, causing problems for me.) I put a 4G card in the new phone, but would prefer much more, but not worth the drive to a big box store that sells larger cards.
This morning, yahoo news has an article noting that the top five selling smart phones are:
1) BlackBerry Curve
2) iPhone
3) BlackBerry Storm (touch screen)
4) BlackBerry Pearl
5) T-Mobile G1
They note that Verizon's buy 1, get 1 free ($100 for the two) promotion on the BB Curve, is what helped sales tremendously, while the iPhone still will cost $200 for one, including rebates. They also point out that iPhone is partnered with only AT&T, unlike BB, which works with all the carriers.
From the
article:
"And here's a potentially worrying trend for Apple: the NPD found that RIM's share of the smartphone market rose a solid 15 percent to a full 50 percent, while both Apple and Palm (which didn't land a handset in the top 5) both saw their shares fall 10 percent."
What I've learned about the iPhone: it has a glass front on it and it will crack. I'm told that iPhone doesn't have insurance to cover that. So, if you are still in your contract, you better know how to haggle with a $9 per hour clerk at AT&T, because you will likely be paying full price for the replacement. OUCH! I've mentioned the killer for me -- difficult to type on keyboard.
The plus side of the iPhone, from what I've seen, is that it can do everything, except fold your laundry.
