BlackBerry Vs. iPhone - Which One Will My Thumbs Play With?

It all started a little over four years ago when the iPhone was not yet available in Canada. I had only seen iPhones through some friends who managed to bring them across the border and then got them unlocked at a local Chinese market. Back then, the iPhone was something to be adored and admired. Everyone in Canada wanted one but only a few could have it. In 2006 I was rocking a Sony Ericsson T610 and even though it was a solid phone it seemed quite obsolete when compared to the smart-phones everyone was starting to talk about.

 Sony Ericsson T610

Nobody knew exactly whether the iPhone was ever going to be officially available in Canada and after a year and a half of waiting for it I ended up cheating on my dream to own one and decided to get a pink BlackBerry Pearl instead. I wanted to browse the internet on my mobile device and use things like Facebook and MySpace and the Pearl was certainly good enough to do so.

I must admit that even though I was quite disappointed for bot being an iPhone owner, the BlackBerry Pearl really started to grow on me. Most of my friends also started to get BlackBerries and therefore my BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) addiction really took off. Through BBM I could send PIN messages to my friends all over the world without being charged for SMS fees. Best part about it is that when you send a message through BBM it not only tells you if it was delivered but ALSO if it was read. I personally love that feature as I have scatter-brained friends who sometimes fail to respond to text messages for hours (not naming anyone here haha).

Pink BlackBerry Pearl

It all was blissful until only a few months later the news I had been waiting for finally hit my ears... the iPhone was finally going to be available in Canada through Rogers and FIDO...and guess what? My husband was getting one!! You may wonder why I could not get one too and be done with this story... Well, do you remember the BlackBerry Pearl I was falling in love with? Yeah... that sucker came with a 3 year contract that I would have to pay hefty fees to break and Telus (my current provider) did not offer the iPhone at the time. 

My husband had been waiting for the iPhone for quite a while too but not being an anxious freak like me he didn't cancel his FIDO plan like I did and therefore he could simply upgrade to the iPhone on launch date. At that point I just gave up on the idea of getting an iPhone for a while and decided to fully commit to my BlackBerry. That's when I discovered Crackberry.com - a paradise for us BlackBerry users.

A couple of years later BlackBerry released their first-ever touch-screen device - the BlackBerry Storm. This device was CDMA and therefore was going to be offered through Telus. I was happy to upgrade to the Storm as it was like having the best of both worlds, the sexy touch-screen with all the well know iPhone apps PLUS BBM and all the things I love about BlackBerry.

Even though the 1st generation Storm had its design and manufacturing issues (dust bunnies decided to make a home under my screen), it fit my lifestyle quite well overall. Some of the issues with the BlackBerry Storm 9530 were corrected about a year later when the Storm 2 or BlackBerry 9550 came out and therefore it became my new and current device. Sure, the Storm 9550 still has some hiccups but it works great 90% of the time.

BlackBerry Storm 9550

Thanks to websites like TiPB, we all know that the new iPhone HD/4G is about to be announced by Steve Jobs at the World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC 2010) with a keynote address Monday, June 7, at 9am. Some of the new anticipated features include:

• Front-facing camera
• Bigger rear-facing camera
• Camera flash
• Secondary mic
• Removable battery
• MicroSIM
• Ceramic/Glass Back

Now, this is where my dilemma starts. Do I keep my Storm 9550 and wait for BlackBerry 6 OS  to be released (see video below) or do I finally make the switch to the iPhone HD? I would love to get your input on this. Please feel free to leave a comment.