I made the change to an iPhone 4 in September after years of BlackBerry use, having previously been in the school of thought that the iPhone was a toy, and the BB a work phone, 'best for business' etc.
Quite honestly, the difference is staggering. Not only is the iPhone 4 far better for media with built in iPod, a great camera, a solid web browers and loads of neat little tools, it's much faster, never crashes (unlike the BB!), and the apps are excellent.
And, contrary to popular option, I find it much better for email too. Having previous been on a Microsoft Exchange server / BlackBerry combo, I've moved to a corporate Gmail / iPhone one and it is far superior. Syncing works like a dream - I can sit waiting to take off, answering emails and filing them into various folders on the phone, and find my web mail and desktop mail perfectly mirrors my actions.
Quite honestly, the BB's are way, way behind on almost every level. Sad to say it, but it's true.
A few cachets:
- The iPhone's reception problems are a little over-exaggerated, but it's definitely not the best. If the main use of your phone is actually making calls, I wouldn't get an iPhone (or a BB for that matter).
- iPhone makes more sense if you're a Mac user because of the seamless automatic syncing of your contacts and stuff like that. Not sure how well if works with a PC (never tried) but many PC users seem to have iPhones and love them.
- The only thing I miss from my BB is BlackBerry Messenger. You've got equivalents on the iPhone (Whatsapp / Ping / Kik etc) but none of them are quite as good. If you've got a lot of friends on BBs, it's worth bearing in mind.
The biggest disadvantage of buying an iPhone however is that you'll end up joining the cult of insufferably smug iPhone users who are invariably very pleased with themselves over their choice of phone and feel the need to tell potential converts all about it. I've tried to avoid this (apart from now), and quite honestly preferred being a BlackBerry user, and would still be one now if the phones weren't quite so rubbish compared to Apple's offering.