[Frank Castle]

How many times are we going to have a thread about this? Too bad Alex went off the deep end as he did have some good thoughts around mobility. Although his PC against exchange misses the entire point of mobile security:

The PC doesn't walk out the door with you!!

Outside of Good server - nothing matches Blackberry from a security / policy / management perspective and when I have to control 3000+ devices THAT matters .. sure SCMDM2007 is coming along but it's a seperate CAL, while BES is a nice all in one box that provides all the great things Blackberry can do AND provide the security I'd say the majority of companies require. Apple has nothing to offer device encryption, device policy to say lock down the camera or loading of Super Monkey ball etc. Frankly I don't see them ever having this unless they license the FULL activesync API set. The SDK could be used but Apple has locked down all this type of functionality. They want this to be like the Ipod and have total control and that isn't going to work in the corporate world. We don't feed the Apple Ecosystem.

I don't need to list out every feature of either device and because one has more / better features it makes it the "winner" .. if that were the case everyone would be using Windows Mobile. Blackberry is a very well put together device that just works. It is engineered to provide workflow improvements and 99% of the functionality can be done one handed (try doing that with a iphone). So combine all that with the BES and what it provides and it's rock solid. OS 4.5 makes the "email is better on the iphone" point negated as HTML / rich content email basically looks the same now.

Also wanted to touch on the 857 vs Iphone .. don't even understand the simularities but it does show how far (and fast) mobility has matured. The Iphone is not possible 3 years ago .. the network as well the cost to build / sell was just not at the level. Likely it was in development for a good 3 years prior to launch. Mobile devices change every 6 months and Blackberry is set to release 3 new devices across every carrier on the planet over the next few months. Apple is limited to At&t in the states and one device (different memory configures). Considering all the things RIM is juggling I'd say they are doing better if you consider the issues lately on Iphone with OS stability, App Store, and MobileME crashes.