So, the whole world now knows about the latest from the Mothership and the pending release of iPhone OS 4. While it brings a whole lot to the table, I find myself a bit underwhelmed. The iPhone (and, by extension, the iPad) seems to be another case of “We’ll give you half of a real product now, and the rest in little pieces that you’ll have to pay for later.” Don’t believe me? Remember when your iPhone got Cut & Paste functionality?

That led me to do this post. I started thinking about everything that’s been announced, and kept looking at my BlackBerry Storm2. I’d see something about a new iPhone feature and wonder why on earth it wasn’t there originally. After all, the BlackBerry had it for a long time.

Now before I start getting death threats from the Apple fanatics , allow me to explain myself. I like Apple products a lot. My wife has an iPod Touch and I’ve got a iPod Classic. We both have Mac laptops. Heck, I’m typing this up on my MacBook Pro! I just don’t follow the Pokemon philosophy of Apple products (gotta get ‘em all!).

So Here’s What We’ve Got

• Multitasking – This is the one that’s got everybody really excited. And for good reason! The usability at that point goes up tenfold. But I had it on my BlackBerry Pearl when I first got it 3 years ago, and RIM has had it around a lot longer than that. If OS/2 Warp could do it, your smartphone should be able to.
• Unified Mailbox – The gang at Apple realized that having multiple email accounts that all come in to separate inboxes is just plain a pain in the butt. So did RIM, several years ago. The BlackBerry does take kind of an unusual approach to it, though. Technically, I have both combined and separate inboxes. It’s just a matter of how I choose to display them. They also take it one step further. SMS, BlackBerry Messenger (instant messaging specifically for BB’s), and even Twitter messages can all be displayed in a single “Messages” mailbox along with any email accounts.
• Added Bluetooth Support – This one I’ll go easy on. New Bluetooth devices are coming out all the time, and making sure the phone works with them is probably a pretty big challenge. But, it still feels like a case of “hold back that feature for now, so we can charge ‘em to get it later.” A quick look at the Bluetooth setup on my Storm2 shows that it can handle these sorts of connections with the current OS:
  • Headset/handsfree
  • Data transfer
  • Tethering (use as cellular modem)
  • A/V devices
  • Remote control

  So, point to Apple. It doesn’t appear my Storm2 supports keyboards right now, but maybe that’s just because I haven’t tried it. And Bluetooth is one of those things that in my mind should work with whatever I throw at it. As long as it’s an approved Bluetooth device, it should just work right out of the box.

• Folders – I really don’t know what to say about this one. Folders? It just strikes me as such a basic feature that I can’t believe they didn’t put it in at the beginning. Been around since the early, early BlackBerry devices. Again, if OS/2 Warp can do it, your smartphone should be able to.
• Business use – I’m going to kind of lump several things together here, because they’re all sort of related. Encryption, remote push of apps, better integration with Exchange. The US government and military have been carrying BlackBerries for a lot of years now, so you better believe it’s got some good encryption. And the ability to wipe the device remotely in the event that it’s lost or stolen. Remote push of apps and Exchange integration both come courtesy of the BlackBerry Enterprise Server software. I will concede the point here that BES has to be purchased separately, but as of a few short weeks ago, a free version has been made available for small businesses.

Well, So What?

I’m sure that ’s exactly what many of you are thinking. I glossed over a lot here, and there are several features I didn’t mention at all. That’s very true. But a point-by-point comparison would be tedious and unnecessary, and the whole argument can be unraveled by these two sentences: If the BlackBerry doesn’t have it already, it’s coming. And my OS upgrades are free. I don’t have to pay for new features. If there’s enough interest in them, RIM will just give them to me.

What’s Still Missing

The last part of my comparison is just a quick rundown of what the iPhone lacks in comparison to my Storm2. I won’t belabor any of the points too much, but needless to say, there are some pretty obvious things here.

• Camera flash – This one needs no explanation. A camera with no flash? Because we’re all going to take pictures only in perfect lighting?
• Replaceable battery – This one is a particular pet peeve of mine that goes back to the iPods. If I kill the battery on my BlackBerry, I can replace it in less than 10 seconds with no special tools needed.
• Extra storage – Steve wants your iPhone to be the be-all, end-all of music and video. But once it’s full, it’s full. Meanwhile, I just swap the microSD card on my BlackBerry.
• Tethering - As I mentioned above, one of the things I can do with my BlackBerry is to “tether” it, which is to say that I can use it as a cellular modem. This can be done with either Bluetooth or USB. It may seem trivial, but take a look at what they charge for WiFi the next time you’re in an airport. It’s criminal! Plus this will work even if WiFi isn’t available.
• OpenGL support – I’ll admit that this one isn’t a big deal to me, and it’s only on the Storm2 right now, but it just shows that RIM is thinking ahead. The iPhone has games, but nothing on par with what the Storm2 can do. Need For Speed on a mobile device is really amazing.

One Final Point

One last point of contention here. And it’s a biggie. This Apple v. Adobe thing is trouble. Steve Jobs declared Flash to be crap, and he’s not gonna take it back. As a result, he’s making the lives of developers miserable, and consumers even worse. Whatever he might say, web developers are going to be slow to adopt HTML5, and they hate having to support multiple formats. Meanwhile, RIM is actually partnering with Adobe, working to improve the development experience. CS5 is going to have the ability to output images and video formatted specifically for the BlackBerry. And Flash is coming to the BlackBerry in Q4. Java is already there, because the whole phone uses Java.

Full Disclosure

Ok, in the interest of keeping this completely fair, I do need to admit a few things here. First and foremost, I like the iPhone. It looks cool, the UI is very clean, and it’s a high quality device. If it weren’t for the fact that AT&T’s 3G coverage is spotty at best in mid-Michigan once you get outside of the I-75 corridor, I might be carrying one right now. Or, maybe not. I think that once I got past the “ooh, shiny” factor of it, I’d still pick the BlackBerry… or maybe a Droid.