iPhone Turmoil

Well, it's official, our company supports the new 3G iPhone.

When our CTO, an Apple aficionado in every respect, bought the original iPhone, I asked about support for corporate email. I'm a Blackberry addict, and I was curious about how it handled email. That's really all I use the crackberry for, anyway. The original iPhone really didn't do a great job of displaying and automating email functions because it didn't support Microsoft Exchange, the dominant player in hosted email.

With the new 3G phone, email support is better, but still not quite in league with the RIMM products. It's not quite so fast or quite so easy as my Blackberry, and the flat panel keyboard doesn't provide the tactile feedback that the RIMM devices do, so typing will take some major adjustment for users.

The iPhone is by far the superior phone, however, and it offers all the fun applications available from Apple. I'm interested in the new VoIP feature. Some of our team use their iPhones via WiFi in the office, but now, Truphone iPhone app is now available to make your iPhone a VoIP Phone.

It remains to be seen how it will integrate with other systems, but it seems to me that Apple is likely to be the first to merge desk phones and cell phones to operate more artfully together.

Anyone with experience with the new 3G iPhone, please let us know your thoughts. I'm considering a switch, but still on the sidelines.

AT&T is making the move harder to rationalize, too. The price drop on the hardware is wiped out by the increase in service charges by AT&T. For me, with 1000 T*Mobile minutes, unlimited email and unlimited data for $79.99 a month, a comparable AT&T plan would be more than $119. That's a heck of a premium for a slick phone.

Tell me what you think!