The Columns: Which is Superior: Blackberry, Droid, or iPhone? - my.hsj.org

Wednesday, May 30, 2012 By Grace Li

- Rebecca Oh

Advertising

The age of smart phones has officially arrived.  It has only been 70 years since the first cell phone was invented in the 1940s yet smart phones have dominated the cell phone market completely and changed the lives of people tremendously.  Without a doubt, Blackberry, Droid, and iPhone are the “Big Three” in the smart phone industry. Though society overwhelmingly favors the iPhone, each phone has its positives and negatives.
    The Blackberry can be considered one of the oldest smart phones in the market. It is famous for its operation system, which is one of the strongest. Since 1999, Blackberry has been the master of mobile email. Blackberries synchronize with many kinds of email and web mail accounts, such as those from unique domains of a company, providing a great convenience for people in business.  However iPhones can now do the exact same thing. Therefore, this special email system wouldn’t help Blackberry compete with the iPhone. 
Many believe that the keyboard is the Blackberry’s biggest advantage.  Not like the one and only home button for the iPhone, the Blackberry has several buttons, such as the return and clear button, limiting the chances of a button being unresponsive by overuse.  Additionally, the Blackberry’s hardware and durability are reputed to be the best among the three.  For people who enjoy texting, an actual keyboard, the QWERTY keyboard for Blackberry, may actually be appreciated more than a touch screen keyboard of the iPhone.  Also, the batteries for Blackberry usually last longer among the three: its statistics for the battery life is 528 hours on standby, with iPhone’s 300 hours on standby.  With the QWERTY keyboard and its generally smaller size screen, it uses less energy. However, the Blackberry proves less proficient with running multiple apps and sustaining battery life.  
In terms of apps, Blackberry doesn’t even stand a chance of winning against iPhone or Droid.  In comparison to the iPhone and Droid’s platforms, Blackberry provided the worst web browsing experience.  Another main problem for the Blackberry is its complexity; as Dr. Edwards stated, “It made no sense and it needed 3 steps every time to do one simple thing on a Blackberry.”  The market for Blackberry aims at business people, which is why it is a better smart phone for mobile professionals; this explains why only 14% of the students and faculty in our school like or use Blackberry.
    Droid, which also gain the support from 14% of the students and faculty, is a platform that started in 2007 under Google’s operation.  Although the Chatham Hall community does not favor it, Droid surprisingly takes up 48% of the sales in the smart phone market, becoming the best-selling smart phone platform worldwide.  What makes it so popular?  First, Droid has an extensive application library that can rival Apple’s app store.  Its biggest advantage is that most of the apps that Google provides are free. Unfortunately, they are not very selective, so it requires more time to find a good quality app.  The second advantage is that one has a vast variety of hardware because many cell phone companies have cooperated with Droid.  Therefore, one might have a greater chance finding a hardware that is unique.  That person will have his or her own fashionable hardware while four-fifths of the others on the same street are using iPhones and Apple products. 
Open source also creates flexibility and makes it compatible with a wider variety of other devices.  For example, the Droid system enables one to open Microsoft documents such as Word and Excel, a big plus as Windows remains the main system on the market. Yet, this also discourages some people because of the insecurity from an open source.  Viruses spread easily on Internet and between phones, which greatly affect peoples’ choosing the Droid.  Another big problem is its low battery life.  Droid is designed to compete with the iPhone rather than with Blackberry phones because it is used more for recreational purposes.
    And finally, the amazing, trendy, and versatile iPhone that seems to be a favorite for most.  It was not surprising that 71% of the Chatham Hall community favors iPhones.  Most of the praise that the iPhone receives is how easy and user friendly the operating system is.  That is what everybody wants and needs; one buys a cell phone to bring convenience to his or her life, not to make it more confusing.  Because the iPhone is the easiest to use among the three, it attracts a lot more buyers than Blackberry or Droid: iPhone applies to people of different age groups as both teenagers and middle aged people use this product.  The most important factor that explains the popularity of iPhones is the amazing and diversified selection of apps.  If there is an app that someone wants, one can name it and it find exactly what he or she is looking for.  With the app store, the phone becomes all-powerful. Games, tools, books, etc.; with this phone, one can have anything that he or she wants. 
Another thing that has to be praised about the iPhone is its high resolution (960x640), which makes the web browsing experience much more comfortable and pleasing.  Even though the pixel of iPhone’s camera is not the highest among its competitors, the high resolution assures the quality of pictures taken with iPhone.   In addition, the iCloud system is very important.  This powerful cloud computing service has been one of the greatest and ground-breaking inventions for Apple fans: the service allows users to store data and sync it with all iOS-based devices, such as the iPhone, iPad and MacBook. iCloud has already reached 125 million users since June 2011.  
On the other hand, iPhones have some cons as well.  Unlike Droid and Blackberry, iPhone batteries cannot be changed and gradually lose their charging capabilities. Because battery life is critical to a cell phone, this is one of the biggest disadvantages for iPhones. The iPhone is also very fragile. The hardware is not as strong as those of Blackberry and Droid.  Bluetooth on iPhones cannot be used to transfer files, Safari does not support flash, it is hard to remove the SIM Card in iPhone, etc.  With even more disadvantages in iPhones, why do people still favor it?  The answer is pretty obvious: most of us have a special complex towards Apple products.  Even without an iPhone, many people are huge Apple fans with iPods, iPads, and a MacBooks.  
    There is no exact conclusion on whether the Blackberry, Droid, or iPhone is better; it really depends on what one is looking for. Blackberry is probably the best match for businesspeople, while the iPhone is for those who just want a phone to play with.  Even though there are more and more fabulous smart phones coming out, it is important to remember that there are still people who simply use their phones for its original purposeâ€Â"calling.  Like Mr. Braun said, “I like to keep my phone a phone - no texting nor Internet.”  Regressing back to where we come from is maybe the best idea overall.