It’s pretty cool that my office is giving us a choice with phones / Internet devices. It is a limited choice, but they are all top of the line phones. The choices are:

iPhone 3GS / 16GB – AT&T

Blackberry Bold 9700 – AT&T

Blackberry Tour – Verizon

From my previous posts, you that I already have an iphone which I love. I use the MS Exchange account on my iphone to sync with google apps. It’s fast and it works well.

The thinking:

I’m not planning on getting rid of my iPhone. I could pick an iPhone for work and give my iPhone to my wife. My personal mail would take a back seat since the company’s email would use the exchange activesync. My work position is running large internet facing web sites. Email and alerting are big deals to me. I also charge my iPhone everyday. With the amount of email I get, I’d be luck if it lasted that long. The 3″ touch screen and the fact that I can have a real browser to troubleshoot web related issues is a huge plus for the iPhone. The 200 mail message limit and limited email alerting capabilities are big limitations on how I would use the device for work. My inbox receives over five hundred messages per day. Many are alerts to systems we’re monitoring. To make it easier, I have categorized the most important alerts via folders in my inbox. The phone will need to alert appropriately on the correct folder while I am away from my desk. Basically, I need to know when a really important alert or email comes through and not just any email. Not that you know a little about what I do and how I use email, the choice for a blackberry fits most of my requirements… so now which one?

The Verdict:

Verizon service where I live is certainly superior to AT&T. I had a curve not to long ago which had the track ball. The track ball loses action after a few months and you need to keep cleaning lint out of it. For this choice, I chose the Blackberry Bold 9700 due to the features above. I am keeping my iPhone and have a blackberry for work. True ops folks would have a phone  one two different networks since my blackberry and iPhone are both AT&T. Considering that the only network that stayed up during the September 11 attacks was sprint, I don’t mind putting my eggs in one choice carriers. I LOVE the trackpad on the bold 9700. Being maintenance free is a big plus. The track ball does offer finer mouse movements, but I find that the track pad is easier on the thumb and fingers since you don’t have to push anything. Having wifi is a bonus too and I think it helps make up for AT&T’s service issues. The device receives email either wifi or 3G/phone network.

For me the Blackberry bold 9700 makes sense. What would you choose?