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As many of you know, I’ve been an avid iPhone user for sometime.  I got one in December of 2007 when I destroyed my Treo, yes destroyed.  Well just recently, Tuesday of last week, my fiancee and I switched from AT&T and the iPhone over to Verizon Wireless and the BlackBerry.  I have BlackBerry Pearl Flip and Emily got the new BlackBerry Tour (its very shiny).

We made the decision to switch carriers because AT&T has poor coverage, I could not even go in the basement of my house without losing 100% of my signal.  No, I do not live in an iron fortress, I sold that last year.  Anyway, we did quite a bit of research on which carrier was the best in terms of coverage, customer service and price.  Verizon came on top of them all, so we then looked at what phone(s) to use since the iPhone is married to AT&T.  I loathe Windows Mobile, mainly for it lack of functionality, stability and constant need for attention.  So, the BlackBerry seemed like a logical choice.  I was a bit hesitant at first because I had adminstered a BlackBerry Enterprise Server at the Rock Island Arsenal about 6 years ago and their devices were subpar to say the least.  I was pleasantly surprised to see the amount of third party apps available and the user review ratings.  I also was happy to see that CNET.com had given them rave reviews.  So we contacted a friend who works for Verizon and he set us up.

So no we’ve both been using BlackBerry(ies?) for over a week and we’re both in love with them.  I must admit, while I was excited to leave AT&T, I was prepared for disappointment with a BlackBerry after using the all powerful iPhone.  I live and die by e-mail, I’m on FaceBook and Twitter quite often as well.  You can’t compare BlackBerry’s e-mail support with any other platform (even on a desktop), I’m speaking in terms of speed, I get e-mails on my phone before they appear on my laptop!  Everything is customizable and it works so smoothly.  While I lost my touchscreen, I’ve found that is remarkably easy to do everything one handed on both the Pearl Flip and the Tour.  This is not only just convenient, but also a necessity while driving.  If you’ve ever tried to dial properly (or txt, shhh) on a touch screen phone while driving you know that its nearly impossible to do passively.

The biggest downfall on the BlackBerry is BlackBerry’s App World, which is still in its infancy compared to Apple’s well received App Store, but its severely lacking in terms of interface, search and overall app availability.  However, the other features on the BlackBerry such as the high speed e-mail delivery, mobile versions of Windows Live Messenger and Google’s GTalk more than compensate for this shortfall.  RIM (the company who makes the BlackBerry) has been at it wait longer than Apple, their major advantage for those of us in the social networking and business communities is that BlackBerrys were designed as portable e-mail devices and then encompassed everything else.  Apple took an iPod and expanded on it.  Don’t get me wrong, I think the Apple iPhone is a great product, but I much prefer the BlackBerry.  Sure, you don’t have the “I’m cool” Apple chic, but I’m more concerned about functionality and overall usability and the BlackBerry has it.

The other thing, is that when I’m not at my office, I have Vonage forwarding calls to my cell, and there have always been problems with it, until I switched to Verizon.  The call transfer is quick and flawless.  With AT&T the Vonage call transfers always had a 1 to 3 second delay when answering, so there would be silence for both me and the caller…not good…especially when its a customer calling.  Not to mention, the call quality with Verizon is superior, most of the time you can’t tell I’m on a cell phone, there is never a hissing or scratching sound in the background.  It’s great.

As you can see, I’m very happy with both my BlackBerry and the switch to Verizon.  Its a great product with a great service, if you’re undecided and need your FaceBook and e-mail on the go, stick with BlackBerry on Verizon, you’ll be pleasantly surprised and constantly wondering why RIM doesn’t make better commercials touting their product’s superior and unique features.

Cheers.