Chris De Herrera has written numerous articles and tips that I know many in the Windows Mobile community rely on.

He has just written this article comparing Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices after using a BlackBerry device on a daily basis for six months. Well worth reading and saving.

Nice and complete.

Here is Chris' homepage for more of his articles.

I was reading this article on our site a month ago, where a sales rep believed that the Blackberry was synonymous with email. And it has always been the conception, that the Blackberry is the master of email. Yet, Chris' review shows us that the Windows Mobile + Exchange setup far supasses the functionality of Blackberries.

This fact would certainly help a large number of Windows Mobile sales.

It's an interesting read, but you can tell it's from a WM person looking at a BB. If you turned it on its head and had a BB person spend 6 months with a WM device I think several of the opinions would be different. Certainly I'm no BB lover but I think there's a definite bias there. "A Windows Mobile device with a touch screen is easier to navigate on" - I don't think I'd agree with that. Some of the facts are not correct either. The Blackberry 8707g supports 3G (UMTS 2100). It's still a nice doc to put in front of the Exec to get him to sign off a truck load of HTC WM6.1 devices though!

This article may be a year old, but it talking about Windows 6.0.

The article is a non-biased view of the two and lists many shortfalls, not just the positive points.

It eventually claims Blackberry to be the winner:

Grace Aquino:

BlackBerry has also evolved, especially on the multimedia front, but ultimately we prefer it over Windows Mobile because it doesn't feel like it's trying to do so much. The OS is snappier at opening and closing applications and surfing the Web, and it has lots of helpful shortcuts to make already intuitive software even more useful.

But the reason "Windows Mobile feels like it's trying to do too much" is curious. Do we not want a device that does everything? Maybe this is the crux of the matter for people.

    * If you want a business device that does everything, with the price of a steep learning curve, choose WM.
    * If you want a business device that just works and has a very small learning curve, choose Blackberry.

Do you have the link mate?

Biomehanika:

But the reason "Windows Mobile feels like it's trying to do too much" is curious. Do we not want a device that does everything? Maybe this is the crux of the matter for people.

    * If you want a business device that does everything, with the price of a steep learning curve, choose WM.
    * If you want a business device that just works and has a very small learning curve, choose Blackberry.

I think that's fair, and I've often told my Boss that people will love their WM devices a lot more than BB's with just a little training to show them what to do. The thing about the Blackberry is almost anybody can pick one up out of a box and use it. I'd like to see the Smartphone OS (read WM Standard) reach this level too.

Of course, here is the link:  BlackBerry vs. Windows Mobile 6

I was having issues with the formatting during the creation of the post, guess I missed putting the link back in on the umpteenth attempt.

 

Biomehanika:

I was having issues with the formatting during the creation of the post, guess I missed putting the link back in on the umpteenth attempt.

Hehehe! Been there.

It's a well laid out decent read, but again there are some facts, this time with WM that are incorrect. There's no way BB is even on a par with WM for Email & Attachment support. The writer penalises WM for needing Exchange for full mail functionality but seems to ignore that fact that BB needs both a BB server and an underlying email service. It's not better for browsing either, although both platforms have their pros and cons and the BB can give the illusion of faster internet access due to the way it renders the pages which can sometimes be good and sometimes be bad. Taking just these two factors into account makes WM the winner rather than BB in the context of the review.

 

Dave Parker MVP:

BB can give the illusion of faster internet access due to the way it renders the pages

My thoughts exactly. The reviewer mentions that Blackberries re-render the pages to text-only. How is this better than being able to view the full page as it was originially intended. I guess the fact Grace starts the Web Browsing round with:

Grace Aquino:

If we were judging by speed alone, BlackBerry would get the gold star for Web browsing.

And then proceeds to only judge on speed, ignoring the actual results of what is actually loaded. I can read a 1000 page book in 90 minutes, if I watch the film...

Lets not forget no HTML email either. Man that would be a deal breaker for me. Besides my phone ain't named after no fruit. LOL

Doug Heidebrink:

Besides my phone ain't named after no fruit. LOL

I guess the Iphone is a big no-no for you too then!

iphone... blackberry all fruit phones to me.. Did I mention I love my windows mobile device?

What if the marketing team renames Windows Mobile 7 to "Papaya"? 

:)

....or Kiwi Fruit.....

Adam Z Lein:

What if the marketing team renames Windows Mobile 7 to "Papaya"? 

:)

Then our t-shirts that are being made won't work anymore.

Maybe they'll go with a veggie instead.

The Celery® from Microsoft.