As a financial planner, my day is structured with client appointments, meetings, and scheduled events from the minute I get into the office until the (eventual) end of the day. I put all of my appointments into my Outlook calendar and hot-sync it to my phone so I have my calendar and contacts list with me at all times. My phone is an integral part of my day, using it for all the applications available to me as well as using it for an actual phone call.
Presently, I use a Blackberry, which is about 3 years old. When I first got it, as we all did, I was very pleased to have the best and up-to-date technology in my hand, because, let’s face it, technology is cool. Here I was, sitting on a riverboat while on vacation floating gently down the Danube in Austria, exchanging emails with my friend in Florida like he was a deck below. Like I said, technology is cool.
Every time I see an IPhone, I marvel at the capabilities and graphics of it. 85,000, no 100,000, no- 1 billion applications…lord; it’s got it all- but does it? I’ve been with Verizon for 15 years or so, so for me, the “mother of all cell phones” is out of the questions.
Recently Verizon introduced the Droid- now you have my attention! Great graphics, keyboard big enough for my fingers, Google capabilities…YES- TECHNOLOGY IS COOL! Off I went to my local Verizon store. I patiently waited for my turn, and when Steve called my name, I was so excited- finally, an IPhone like phone from Verizon. I could store and flip through my Grandson’s pictures. I could search the web with lightning speed with the assistance of Google. I can leave my GPS home when I travel. Oh, the joy of it all! Steve showed me all the bells and whistles of the Droid, and the more I saw, the more excited I got. At the end of his presentation (boy, was I out of breath) I managed to mumble…”and where’s the plug to hot-synch it with Outlook?” All of a sudden, Steve got very serious. Sorry he said, but Verizon did not design this phone for the business person. It was designed for the “recreational user” not the “business user.” I was crushed.
To me, it defies logic as to why a company would not include all of the great things of the predecessor product when developing a new product. After consulting with others in my field as well as internet research, I discovered that for the business user, the Blackberry is far superior to the IPhone. The Blackberry device is much easier to do email with, and while the IPhone has a zillion applications, regular texting is much more difficult with a flat screen as opposed to a keyboard. Many of my colleagues, enamored with the IPhone, have actually gone back to their old Blackberry after repeated events of frustrations. The lesson? Make sure you research technology before you buy. Don’t just fall for a pretty face…
