Last updated: March 30, 2011 11:16 am
Marcie Foster — The Cord (Wilfrid Laurier University)
WATERLOO, Ont. (CUP) — Avoid the temptation of the illustrious Apple. The BlackBerry is where it’s at.
The Canadian-developed, secure, all-around quality smartphone is clearly better than the Apple iPhone 4. Sure, you can sync your iPhone 4 to your iPad 2 or your MacBook Pro. If you have a lot of Apple products, it’s probably without question that you’d buy the iPhone.
But let’s say you’re not sure which one to buy. You walk into the big-name telecom provider’s store and you are bombarded with prices and options. The baseline price for a 32GB Apple iPhone 4 is $749 or $269 with a three-year plan. The current Blackberry Bold model rolls in at $574.99 or $49 with a three-year plan.
If the immediate savings isn’t enough for you, plans also generally cost less depending on social networking and messaging — they run from $40-80 a month.
Not exactly cheap, but they’re better than those required for an iPhone, which runs purely off data. Mobility plans for an iPhone start at $50 and can easily exceed $100.
At the end of the day the iPhone is overloaded with bells and whistles to make up for the fact it consists of pieces of plastic cheaply adhered together, yet marketed superbly. With HD cameras, FaceTime, apps and games like Angry Birds, I can see why someone would be misled enough to want an iPhone. Apple is legendary for packaging their product just right so that the general public will run in droves to buy it. It is a shiny new toy, but lacks practicality and usefulness for day-to-day life.
BlackBerry, on the other hand, is the pinnacle of practicality. BlackBerry Messenger allows one to connect instantly with friends for free and the physical keyboard allows for fast typing far beyond the capability of a fancy touch screen.
Not to mention the push email functionality of a BlackBerry is leaps and bounds over an iPhone.
After all, smartphones are supposed to be about convenient communications, not gimmicky apps. The BlackBerry is a clear winner for both business and consumer crowds.
Battery life, keyboard and the BlackBerry Enterprise Server over a slick, nice looking glorified iPod touch? I’ll take the BlackBerry.
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