URBALO

The comparison between Blackberry and iPhone have been popular for quite some time now, but the choosing the right phone for you might be a tough decision and especially, if it’s based on a professional use.

Before the iPhone, the Blackberry was the most popular choice among real estate agents. Sure, there was the Palm with their several models and even, the Windows Smartphones, but majority of the realtors associated the Blackberry with a business tool, a status.

The iPhone came along and with their latest 3G model, it changed the game. Realtors were and are still faced with a tough decision: buying a Blackberry due to the superior email capabilities or choose the state-of-the-art iPhone that can perform more advanced multimedia tasks.

Well, our guide will shed some light and at the end, we will give you our verdict.

Blackberry for Realtors

One and the biggest advantage of owning a Blackberry is without a doubt, the amazing email capabilities and security that it offers. Being in the email business for over ten years now, RIM (the company manufacturing the Blackberry phones) has become a leader in email communication. Their “push” technology delivers the emails into your inbox within seconds after hitting the servers and it offers a robust and stable environment with minimal to none downtime.

A great advantage of a Blackberry over the iPhone was the ability to search the MLS database through your phone. PocketMLS is one of the companies that offers a mobile software for your phone, which increases your mobility and the need of being tied down to a computer.

For a while, another important advantage of a Blackberry was the possibility to turn your mobile device into an MSL lock box key, by simply using the application provided by GE Security: eKEY for BlackBerry.

Now, let’s move onto features and design.

While the iPhone is a great device, as you will learn a little bit further down, it is missing two important features that Blackberry owners take for granted: copy/paste feature and recording video. The first feature comes in very handy when you’re joggling between emails and would like to copy and paste text for someone else, it absolutely beats rewriting the content. Video recording, maybe not the feature that every realtor uses it, but once in a while you might need to shoot a short video of a property and email it to your husband. It saves them time to travel to that  property and it gives you more flexibility.

Design

Prior to the newly released Blackberry Storm and Bold, iPhone users had one strong argument over the Blackberry fans: our gadget is “cooler than cool”. Sure, not the best counterargument, but for many, design and slickness it’s important in a phone. Add the amazing large iPhone touch screen into this equation and you will see my point.

But, Blackberry realized the potential danger of having the iPhone turned into a  gadget/business tool and released the Blackberry Storm, the first touch screen mobile phone released by RIM. The Storm is aimed at people that enjoy large screen devices, touch capability and multimedia features.

For the more conservative Blackberry owners that want the bleeding edge technology, but without going the full way, RIM came out with the Blackberry Bold, the most beautiful phone released by them. While it lacks the touchscreen feature, it offers one of the best screens available on a phone. Slightly larger and faster than any other Blackberries, the Bold shortly became the most popular choice among realtors. GPS, Bluetooth, high-quality QWERTY keyboard and a “business look” are just some of the things that it offers.

And the last but not least advantage of going the Blackberry route is the multitude of decives available, from different cell phone providers, which implicitly gives you the option of staying with a Blackberry but being able to negotiate better voice and data prices.

iPhone for Realtors

Let’s start with the negative aspects. YES, no “true” push-email capability out of the box (some companies offer that through their Microsoft Enterprise servers), no copy/paste(the next software release iPhone 3.0 will bring that) and no video recording. Oh….and no Supra key for now, but by summer time, the iPhone will get one as well.

Some might argue that the lack of a hard keyboard is a huge disadvantages, but for others, this could turn into a plus. Obviously, RIM was trying to cover its bases as well when it released the Storm.

One of the main and BIGGEST advantages of an iPhone is the Application Store, a collection of over 25,000 software applications, most of them free. But how is that an advantage for a real estate agent?

Well, for one, most of the developers are focusing these days on building applications specifically for the iPhone, raging from games, TO-DO and planning applications, to more business oriented like iPhone MLS, YES, you heard that right. The iPhone cancels one of the advantages of owning a Blackberry: MLS access on-the-go or even better, house hunting on the go.

Shall we focus on the iPhone’s cool features? Of course, let’s give Apple a chance to prove us that the iPhone could be the ultimate business device for a realtor. As I mentioned above, the screen: large, bright and beautiful. Forget about squinting or doing lots of zoom-in, zoom-out on your Blackberry, the iPhone gives you the the full website, rather than just a downsized mobile version.

Flip the iPhone horizontally and you have a mini-computer in your hands. Now, you can go ahead and perform most of the functions that you would on your laptop.

With more and more developers or homeowners listing their properties on Youtube, the iPhone turns into the perfect tool to view those videos on the go or together with your client, easier than firing up your laptop and connect to the internet. Same goes with listing photos posted on websites which can be easily viewed through the iPhone’s large screen. Sure, your client and yourself might not get the perfect image of that property, but it will help both of you “triage” the possible showings.

The next generation software will bring to the iPhone the highly-awaited turn-by-turn directions, so no more Google Maps and old-school directions. An application from the Apple Store will be able to replace those expensive Navigation Systems in your cars.

Design

This is the area where the iPhone shines. Unfortunately for RIM and other mobile phones manufacturers, nothing comes close to what Apple has done.Incorporating their most popular device, the iPod, into a phone and turning into a useful tool, was the best thing that Apple could have done. If you hate to carry a Blackberry and an iPod with you, then the iPhone is your best bet.

The slick futuristic design, the screen, the iPod “cool factor”, makes the iPhone stand out. Turning on your iPhone reveals one of the most advanced and well thought, user-friendly softwares ever installed on your phone.

So, which one is better for a real estate professional: iPhone or Blackberry?

Touch choice, but having plenty of experience with both devices, I can certainly say that my recommendation is to buy the iPhone. And I will tell you shortly two of the main reasons:

1. Their application store will only get bigger and better over time, meaning thousands of software titles to choose from, which can only make you more productive.
2. Multimedia capabilities and full internet browsing experience. Real Estate marketing is moving more and more towards all digital and web based, and being able to be mobile and still take advantage of these latest tools, can only help you and your business.