I say it’s individuals needs and expectations, location, and technical ability’s which are the true answers to the above. There sure is not one be all, end all answer to answer the above.

The iPhone technically is a generation ahead of the others out there. The other wireless providers can and do provide equal if not better service than verizon.

Your are totally right saying when the cdma Pearl comes available for verizon that it will be the best verizon’s got though. That is a FACT even before it becomes available.

Business-minded people will likely prefer the BB to the iphone, because it is superior in that genre. Multimedia-minded users will of course prefer the awesome iphone, which is perhaps undisputedly the coolest phone ever.

As a Verizon customer myself, how could I deny that our phones have historically been the antithesis of ‘la creme de la creme’? On the flip side, though I have tried to leave Verizon on several occasions because of same, I just can’t: the other networks simply are not as good overall…at least anywhere I have lived or traveled in the States.

As a business user who needs to combine work and play in one tight, integrated package, the Pearl is going to EDGE out (pun intended) even the new iphone. First of all, high speed is available on Verizon’s superior network, wherever the mobile phone goes; it won’t be bound by wifi’s geographical constraints. Secondly, I need to synch up with work-related emails/apps. BB is king in this market.

Bottom line: The new Pearl for Verizon appears to be the best we’ve got for the combined business-and-home user. It’s an improvement over the earlier (other carrier) Pearls, and it’s reasonably cool. I know, I know, not like the iphone, but for Verizon??? We’ll take all we can get, and a week ‘earlier’? Really cool…

Crippled is what verizon does to phones. The manufacture puts in features and function and verizon cripples and removes certain ones (and have been proven in court of law guilty of doing so)

The first generation iPhone is NOT crippled, nor does at&t have any say on what the iPhone software and hardware can and can’t do. Apple from day one made it known that at&t deals with the wireless technology and Apple deals with the hardware when it comes to the iPhone. You can chose to consider what ever misinformation you feel you need to spread by twisting the word crippled, but when it comes to wireless devices and the word crippled the next word in the sentence is verizon.

Was the 1st generation BB open to 3rd party app’s? The iPhone supports 3rd party web apps http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2007/06/11iphone.html and when it’s all said and done, the iphone will support more and more 3rd party apps. But like RIM, Apple has all the reason to keep the iPhone stable and secure. Letting 3rd party app’s run wild is no way to do this and would amount to very bad press for both RIM and Apple if a certain 3rd party app was crashing either the BB or iPhone. There is good reasons for RIM’s and Apple’s ways. verizon’s crippling ways are all for reasons of greed, arrogance and the consumer always coming last.

As for the iPhone, agreed it’s a great product. However, I would consider a phone that doesn’t allow the use of any 3rd party apps crippled.

Better get that cough checked out too, it seems to be making you compare a RIM pearl for verizon with a completely different manufactures phone that you think is crippled, did you read that the iPhone was crippled? Your mistaken, every function Apple put into the first generation iPhone is working well, nothing has been crippled. The iPhone by the way is a generation ahead of any other smartphone out there including RIM BB’s.

Perhaps in the future comparing RIM BB Pearls built for GSM (the standard, open, global network) with cdma models and then with the crippled verizon model would show the real truth, thats what will be tough to swallow and make one cough.