Socket Jockeying

I enjoy reading Gruber for my regular dose of pro-Apple world views  (and he’s a good writer to boot)¹.  However, I don’t quite agree with his analysis in his recent piece called “Blackberry vs. iPhone“.  In the post he argues that really the only reason that someone, once the iPhone gains its “enterprise features” (read: Microsoft Exchange sync support) this summer, would choose a Blackberry over an iPhone is their odd prediction to preferring a hardware keyboard².

As I’ve written about before, I’m an avid Blackberry user.  That said, as Gruber notes, the iPhone is simply the best browsing device out there on the market.  Arguably better than any that were even dreamed up prior (even in the various wireless conferences I used to have to trot to in a previous life).  It is this fact that has had me wringing my hands over if I should try to hop to it over my current “bulletproof” Blackberry 8800.

So, what prevents me from jumping without consideration?  The following list:

1. Hardware Keyboard
2. Battery Life
3. Copy/Cut and Paste

The Keys to Fast Email

First, of course the “hardware keyboard”.  Yup, Gruber is right, this is pretty damn important to hardcore mobile email users.  I’m talking about those of us that get a hundred emails we need to respond to a day, those that actually need a rock solid email solution on their person always.  I get the impression from his post that this is a bit of a foreign concept for him.  It seems that while having email on the phone and being able to use it is nice, it’s not a life changing event for Gruber and many iPhone enthusiasts I’ve met.  For some of us it is.  The hardware keyboard made by RIM (vs. other vendors of crap that runs things like Symbian and Windows Mobile) is second to none for those of us in that situation.  Combine that with the RIM “smart text” that inserts apostrophes where you expect, and capitalizes as you hope, etc. and you have a tuned device that one can really knock out substantive emails on.

However, I’m willing to reconsider.  I’m willing to even take a chance on a $500 device on the claim that after a week(s) of use it gets much better.  That, while not ever as good as a hardware keyboard (this from former Blackberry users out there now on iPhones), even a former Blackberry user can see clear to using it as their main device.

No Time to Charge

Second is “battery life”.  This is where RIM’s years of wireless engineering and messaging expertise shows.  In contrast to the ActiveSync based solution that Windows Mobile (and soon iPhone) solutions use to sync, RIM uses their own over the air connection methods to ship data to/from the phone.  They can do this because they have that often criticized NOC in between the device and the enterprise servers. 

ActiveSync (AS), on the other hand, has the device open up a full HTTP connection and leave that connection open.  This is a little costly, but what’s more costly is that devices go in and out of coverage – all the time.  That means an AS based sync solution needs to reestablish the TCP/IP connection to the messaging server multiple times a day.  This alone is a huge amount of network chatter.  Layer in the various ACK/NACK behaviors at the TCP layers and you start to get a lot of back and forth that was never really optimized for the wireless world.  What does all this network chatter mean?  Lost battery life.

My 8800 gets 6 days without a charge.  This is while it’s going in and out of coverage.  While it is push email sync’ing 24 hours a day (with around 50 mails in and 10 mails out per day).  While I’m sending around 20 SMS messages a day.  While I’m browsing the mobile versions of Google, NY Times, and others multiple times a day.  While the device is set to vibrate mode for all incoming messages and phone rings.

Anyone who’s used another device, including an iPhone, realizes this is a big deal.  That type of battery life simply “does not happen” on any other device in the market.  For a guy like myself, who travels every week, the ability to not worry about when my major link to the world – that’s always with me – will stop working is huge.

Out of the “big three” issues I have remaining with going to the iPhone, I’d rate this one the highest for myself.  It makes me fret to think about having to plug in my phone every night again.  Worse, if I truly embrace the unified device concept of the iPhone, I’ll be sharing my battery capacity for my main communicator with my audio playback device.

My Scenario: I fly cross country every few days.  During these flights I listen to my iPod the entire time, then get off the plane, and need my smartphone to do email, text and voice all day for me until I’m hitting the sack (e.g. about 12-14 hrs after my 5 hr flight arrives). 

My Question: If it’s only one device that does both these functions, and that device already has tight battery life compared to a Blackberry, will I make it a full day?

In Search of a Clipboard

Finally, copy and paste, or “clipboard” support.  I’ve already griped about the lack of this on earlier iterations of the Windows Mobile platform (the smartphone sub-platform, specifically).  I cannot imagine why this wasn’t included in a new modern phone platform like the iPhone in v1.  I’m sure there was a reason, however, I can’t think of it.

Many will argue that clipboard support isn’t that important.  While I will concede that I don’t need it every day, when I do need it, it’s hugely valuable.  The number of times I needed to write something (often a number or date) on a sheet of scrap paper in order to read it off of one app on my phone, and then re-enter it into another app (say, read out of a mail message and write in a contact’s address book entry) was much greater than zero while I used my Windows Mobile phones.  It’s not something I want to go back to.

Could I live with out it?  Yes.  Should I have to (and this is the crux of the issue, there is no good reason to cut this functionality)?  No.

Making the Call

So, as the countdown to WWDC 2008, with its predicted announcement of “iPhone 2″ to come, enters its final weeks I have been asking myself if I will be willing to compromised on any or all of the issues above.  As I say, I really want to like the iPhone.  With the official release of the SDK, I’m sure there will be even cooler offerings running on the platform to come (and the ever expanding mobile web offering for the iPhone are alone an argument for moving to it). 

Well maybe Steve Jobs and crew could knock down at least one of the three with v2?  That would probably be enough for me to justify taking the plunge.

1 I actually love Mac’s and the entire small ISV ecosystem that the platform encourages.  So, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Mac basher, but Gruber can be a little all-pro Apple (to give him his due, some critical Apple pieces show up – most notably his commentaries on how Apple breaks its own HIG’s all the time).

2 I In his defense, he admits that he’s just posting to ponder what may be, but I take some issues with his base arguments.