iPhone Mail v Blackberry Mail

Blackberry has a "push" server. Mail arrives on your device immediately after it is received by the server. So it works more like SMS. The iPhone (and most other devices that support mobile email) ask the server for new mail periodically (e.g., every 15 minutes) or manually when you open the mail app.

The other difference is the iPhone supports rich text HTML email; the Blackberry is ASCII text only.

That's part of it. But there are other reasons. A company-issued Blackberry, using a company provided RIM server, can control the BB remotely. If it is stolen or you leave the company they can disable the BB from the central server and erase any email stored on it.

However, some of the business community HAS adopted the iPhone. I use mine primarily for business. It's primarily very large companies who closely control access to IT resources who don't like the iPhone for several reasons: The control issue, the fact that they would have to train support staff, the fact that ANY change to the IT infrastructure requires months of discussion and review, fear of the unknown. Now if the CEO wants an iPhone they may move quickly to support it, but if the average worker or middle manager wants it there is little chance of making it happen.

The iPhone does support push email from Yahoo!

Though I've found it to be a bit unreliable. That was a while ago though, so things may have improved.

I find that checking every 15 minutes is more than adequate for my needs.

I think some people with Blackberry's tend to use the email like text messaging to carry on "conversations".

Matt

another difference is that Blackberries have no problem with maintaining your identity of your original work email address. This means that you can email all you want with the Blackberry and all of your email recipients are none the wiser. They think that they're emailing with you at work.. also your entire email threads can exist on your corporate email address.

Yahoo makes it a point that you can't change the reply-to address.. so once you reply to a pushed email to your iPhone, the thread has left your corporate email address, and now your recipients are emailing back and forth with you on your Yahoo account.

It's frustrating.

Another difference is with a Blackberry you either need proprietary software from RIM running on your mail server, or pay them to relay your email to use all of its mail functions. If you go the route of them relaying it, they have a copy of all your emails on their server.

When that service to relay the email goes down, it affects all Blackberry users. One such outage made the news last week.

With the iPhone it uses the IMAP and POP3 protocols which are standard to check your own server, without any middle software or middle server.

Blackberries also integrate tightly (so I'm told) with corporate LDAP and calendar servers. So when you add an appointment on your calendar on the BB, it automatically goes in your Outlook too.
(With iPhone you have to sync it with USB.)

Cant copy and paste text...or open pdfs....kind of not business-y
a PITA even for me,not a businessman

Well you can open PDFs and Word documents if they're attached to an email. Or if they're stored in your iDisk, I believe. But yes, I definitely agree that iPhone is not very business-y.

BlackBerrys have keyboards, which makes "thumb typing" much easier and quicker.

Also, most BlackBerrys don't have cameras, which corporate IT departments like. Anything with a camera starts to look like a toy instead of a business appliance, so many corporations won't buy their employees smartphones with cameras in them. Government workers, in particular, aren't allowed to bring camera phones into the office.

I have both a BlackBerry and an iPhone. The iPhone is certainly more fun, but in actual use I find the BlackBerry more practical.

I forgot the most significant difference of all: BlackBerry updates your calendar and contact list wirelessly. You never have to attach a cable and sync a BlackBerry; it just stays synchronized all the time. Very handy.

IPhone also supports push e-mail with IMAP on gmail accounts as well.

Is push Gmail supported? I didn't think it was. I thought that was for Yahoo Mail only.

It's not true push...only every 15 minutes as said above.