Give me back my BlackBerry!

By Ara Aslanian

BlackBerry 850 - introduced 1999

After experiencing some device problems with my new Verizon BlackBerry Bold 9930, and due to continued media and financial setbacks by RIM, I decided to switch to the iPhone 4s. The timing was perfect... the holiday season would give me enough off-time to get acclimated with the iPhone. Having used a BlackBerry device since the first BlackBerry 850 was introduced in 1999, I knew this was going to be a drastic change for me. Although the first BlackBerry was hardly a smart phone, the e-mail only device which had very limited HTML browsing capabilities, was undoubtedly a revolutionary transition from the beeper.

The transition of moving contacts and e-mails from my Bold to the iPhone was painless and easy, with the exception of my notes. I knew there would be a learning curve for the use of a touch screen only device; luckily, being an iPad and iPod Touch user, I am very familiar with the iOS operating system and know most of the phone's functions.

The iPhone 4s provides lots of eye candy and fun with its amazing camera, all the cool apps and games you can ask for, gorgeous screen resolution and of course Siri, the talking assistant. After a few days of playing with my iPhone and being told how great it was by everyone, I began to really get into it and use it as I would my Blackberry: constant e-mails, notes to myself, to-do lists consisting of client needs, calendar entries and e-mails to my staff and partner for client related matters.

I soon began to realize the great effort it took for me to fulfill these necessary functions. Doing what I did with the BlackBerry on the iPhone required extra time, taps and slides. However, I wrote these off as a part of the learning curve I was overcoming and was sure my efficiency would increase over time and with familiarity. All the same, my experience never improved.

Although the iPhone had many great functions, it fell short of those that really counted for me. The lack of intuitive e-mail, calendar and contact management were my biggest issues with the phone.

Siri was helpful but could only recognize certain names such as Jeff, Mike &John. It had difficulty with Armenian names and required me to repeat the name with different pronunciations before it could bring up the correct persons contact information. For me the most important use if Siri was to help me make calls on the go, but if you have ever used a BlackBerry device with a keyboard, you know that each key can be programmed as a short cut to dial a name from your phone book. I use "I" for Inverselogic to call the office, "J" for Jeff, etc. This to me is much more efficient than clicking and holding the home button on the iPhone, waiting for Siri to wake up, then asking it to dial my office; in most instances it would ask me to repeat again or would tell me it couldn’t help me at the moment.

I also missed the thumb click on the BlackBerry; it is not until you no longer have the feature that you realize what an amazing tool it is. One click and you have everything at your finger tips: reply, forward, attach, delete, etc. With the iPhone, you have to move and slide your finger all over the screen if you are reading an e-mail, and if you wish to call that person, you must scroll all the way up to the top and hit the call button.

Simple things like attaching a photo to your e-mail become a time-consuming task; you must save your e-mail as a draft by hitting cancel, or by exiting the mail application by clicking the home button, go to your photo album, copy the photo, come back into the mail app, and finally paste it! This becomes frustrating when you are trying to get an e-mail out before a meeting or are on the go.

Last Friday, I boarded a Southwest flight to Las Vegas for the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show with a fully charged iPhone. The plan was to walk the show, visit few vendors and board a flight back to Burbank at 7:00PM. I had made a few calls to the office during the morning hours after my arrival into Las Vegas and sent out several e-mails and text messages. I did however also use the amazing camera to take some shots of new OLED and 3D TVs on display at the Samsung and LG booths. Looking down at my iPhone, I realized my battery was down to 45% by noon and 35% by 1PM. I was forced to shut off my WiFi and my phone so it would last me the rest of the day. It was at this point that I made the decision of switching back to my BlackBerry as soon as I got back to the office. With my upcoming trip to New York on the horizon, I realized the iPhone would not last me the day in the big city and would provide aggravation to my life.

As I switched phones once again, I was happy. It was like having my old best friend back! I was reunited with one click access to everything that I needed to do with my phone; there’s no need for apps or games since that’s what the iPad is for. All I could ever ask for is a phone that handles calls, e-mails, contacts and calendars extremely efficiently. It may not have the great screen and browsing capabilities of the iPhone or its amazing digital camera, but it sure beats it in what I think matters most to a business professional who is constantly using their phone for messaging and communications.

To all my long time friends and client who think I'm not an Apple fan, I think you'd be happy know that this entire article was written using my iPad and revised on my iPad at JFK waiting for my flight back to Burbank. I must boast that my BlackBerry’s battery is still at 70% at 5:22 pm EST. I was here to attend a technology leadership conference and noticed most of us were still using the BlackBerry, a few were on the iPhone, some were on the Android and a handful were even carrying both an iPhone and a Blackberry (BlackBerry for their email and phone communicates and the iPhone for their social media apps and other needs). If New York is any indication of what business professionals still use as their main smart phone, there is no doubt that BlackBerry runs this city.

As I was getting ready to post this article news came that RIM co-CEO’s stepped down handing over the control to a new up and coming executive, a move I believe the board should have forced a long time ago. Hopefully the new CEO will be able to restore RIM and BlackBerry to what it was before and is able to keep the company around, as many business professionals such as myself depend heavily on our BlackBerries.

Ara Aslanian is the president and CEO of Inverselogic Inc., a technology solutions company based in Glendale, California.