Okay, maybe my family's geeky but we have all four. My son got the Iphone through his father's service. I have the Blackberry Curve and my husband has the Blackberry Pearl and the new G 1. He replaced his Pearl with a G 1 btw.

The Iphone to me is seamless, with beautiful quality pictures incorporated within a phone. People almost seem to play with their Iphone or else be plugged into headsets chilling to music. Just don't drop it unless you have protection around the edge.  The change out cost for that seamless screen is pricey! The G 1 is not as smooth at first as the Iphone for pictures which moves with just a pinch from small to large, and back. The touch pad may be more sensitive or just apple technology, but it flows from screen to screen nicely once you discover the right touch from your finger tip. Using the phone pad however required some repeat dialing at first to get used to the touch/miss quality of the screen for one used to rapid number phone dialing. Of course, your favorite numbers should be one keyed eventually anyway. My son's phone will receive pictures but cannot send them. He does not have video options either although he can watch Utube and movies on screen with ease and no apparent delay. The sound quality is of course equal to or better than the Ipod. He did lose his Ipod password the other day and was not able to access his messages online which was a pain until he could reach apple and straighten it out. The weight of the phone is not bad either and seems to fit into the normal to large hand of my son quite nicely. It's still a state of the art phone to me.

The Blackberry Pearl was like a standard cell phone with it's look and feel and alphabet mixed over numbers. The internet on it made it more fun. You could download games, access the internet, check the weather, google your exact location and give you directions. It played music like an Ipod all for the size of a cell phone. I found the keypad too small for my farsighted eyes as well as the buttons too small. And to try reading the letters even with my progressive lens was difficult. The Pearl was all about size though, seeing how much internet/computer feel this tiny little "phone" could have. Our Pearl had several problems in the beginning, even had to return the first one due to technical difficulties. Blackberry was always extremely nice about warranties and technical help, except you had to always start the whole beginner process from the start every time you called in. My husband got where he felt he could work for Blackberry's customer service technical department after he lead some of the first operators through the checkpoints so he could get to the second tier technician who would help him. The Pearl worked out alot of kinks for Blackberry though and when the Curve came out, these were fixed. The Pearl was more like a data phone, with it's calendar, notepad, voice messaging. It plays great music though and we play it outloud for our bike rides to entertain us. We like the charger for the Pearl better too than the weird Iphone plugs with caps. Again, no video taking capability which is kinda strange, but it will show short UTube movies, just takes a while to download and view. Kinda like my old computer on dial-up versus DSL, or even fiber optic compared to DSL. We are definitely getting to be a demanding, spoiled phone society.

The Blackberry Curve suited me better because it was slightly larger, had a full keyboard. I'm actually faster with both thumbs then on my older Samsung slider phone which I thought was pretty fast. I don't need querky text despite being very adjusted to it before. The Curve gets online like the Pearl but also has Wi-Fi capabilities. With this you can be on Wi-Fi at home, calling long distance over your internet connection with no cost. And you can also access the internet at any Wi-Fi location for free without paying the extra internet usuage charge. Of course on the freeway, if you are lost and want to see where you are, you won't have internet service. I tried it without service for a long time and had no problems except I just couldn't get online like my husband could. But then we just used his for that. Eventually though, I did sign-up for internet access so I can get online now like his phone. However, my phone uses the Edge technology which is going away and is slower loading. I still wait to load pages despite adding a 4 gb memory to my phone. This speeds up processing, storing/viewing pictures and music without freezing up your phone. We actually froze up the Pearl with too many tunes/pictures. My curve does take video now, but it has to be downloaded and plays them nicely. It's a little slow on playing UTube videos though and seems like wait a lot for it to download large pages.If the data is too large, you won't be able to receive it. You can set the Curve to mobile internet which is great since it only loads the necessary stuff and you can click through to get what you actually want to see, less ads, pictures and distractions. We really like the fact that Blackberry phones have their own messenger system between them which have fun icons like on MSN messenger you can send to each other free. It stayed on all the time, without interference from other contacts. The camera quality is also great and downloaded pictures look almost like my digital camera if I can hold the phone still enough to take a clear picture. I still struggle with this maybe because the clicker ball is in the center of the phone. Yes, I do get tired of scrolling that darn ball,and they do wear out and can come loose, like the Pearl's did.  You can order a replacement piece for this as well. I  did find a new button on my menu just today, page overview, that certainly speeds that scrolling up. I confess, I haven't sat down and read through my entire Blackberry book yet. I guess I'm still having fun discovering things and learning how to use it better. I'm finally using my calendar more and really discovered it's very handy for alarm reminders, setting appts, permanently listing relatives and friends birthdays and special occassion. . NO, and no they cannot dowload them on the SIM card, despite what they say. I keep a permanent copy of my cell phone numbers at home should I ever lose my phone as some numbers I only store here. So this phone is more like a phone/data/internet product and less about scrolling through beautiful pictures and shows. I do that on my computer at home.

The G 1 tried to combine all these elements, the touch screen novelty of the Iphone, the keyboard of the Curve, the small size of the Pearl/Iphone, yet larger viewing screen of the Curve/Iphone. They did a pretty good job. You can also move the photo around and zoom in on any part of the picture you want, and not just the center with amazing acuity.First though, you will have to get a Google email, and they were smart because everyone then has to access through Google for all their internet needs first. Pretty savy if I say so myself. The touch screen isn't quite as smooth at first as the Iphone and a lot of repeated touching to find the right spot, or right way to enlarge, reduce things. However, the menu key is there as well to help with this, so you have that second option if you struggle with the touching thing more than you thought. But it will enlarge even the smallest picture anywhere on the picture. You can pull your icon screen from the side with a small box like an open window on your computer screen dragged to the edge. It also has a game android network that has several features not available on any other phone. You can open several ( we got up to 10) windows on your screen at once, to work from on the internet. You can view Utube and streaming video just like on a computer. The headset for listening to them is extra which is why my husband doesn't listen to as much music through them, just plays it outloud. It feels more like a data computer than a phone, since no numbers are displayed, actually have to go to a phone page to call. The G 1 uses a newer internet technology that is just emerging that is much faster than the Edge my Curve uses, so that is also a big plus. It has it's own charger and if you confuse the wrong Blackberry charger for the G 1, it can fry the phone. We marked ours with a bright wire on the cord. The blue tooth earpieces don't seem to like the Blackberrys or the G 1 for voice activating calls. Mine redials the last number more than I would like, so I have to turn the blue tooth off or make sure my last number dialed is my own home number.

All in all, I'm glad he has his G 1, but I will keep my Curve and be happy with it. After all, we still have the best of both worlds. The Iphone.. no, that's a teenager phone to me, plus I have this need to constantly wipe my screen from greasy, dirty finger marks. I'm sure the Iphone would make me crazy there.

Even if your year isn't quite up yet, most phone companies will go ahead and upgrade you early if you upgrade to the newer phones they are pushing. Let's see, I've had 10 cell phones already, between losing, dropping, wetting or just didn't like the ones I had. I also buy the padded covers along with the phone leather pouch. I still drop my phone occassionally and it has saved me many times. And insurance, well It's worth it all once you have that first phone stolen.