I didn't mean to imply that comparing a first generation BlackBerry to a first generation iPhone would be a fair comparison (I think the exact word I used was fairer). Honestly, I don't think the BlackBerry and iPhone are comparable. If I were to compare the iPhone to anything, I'd compare it to the first generation SideKick. My reasoning for bringing up a comparison of first generation product was due to the article being a complaint about missing features in the iPhone. Hardware was mostly irrelevant (except that software is dependent on having the hardware to run on). Instead, the article read to me like a comparison of feature lists. Unless the BlackBerry developers were totally incompetent (and I don't think they are), a product that has been in active development for 10 years is going to have a larger feature list than a first generation product (which has probably only been in active development for 2-3 years tops). The reason is the bulk of development isn't going to be for adding new features -- it's going to be towards making sure the OS and hardware play nice and to make sure that new hardware features work correctly.

Of course, new softtware features are sexy and they have to be added. But it's pretty hard to add the new features unless you have a solid foundation already built. First gen is like building a house. You don't worry about the dishes in the dining room unless you know the thing is going to stand up first -- you put most of your initial energy into making sure you have a solid foundation and that everything is structurally sound.

I probably shouldn't have said that e-mail is useless -- it's just that I've worked in shops where it has been grossly abused to the point of becoming useless. When you get hundreds of e-mails a day, it does become an interruption. Also, when colleagues ask me questions, I prefer for them to ask in person, on the phone, or over IM because I find it's very rare that a question can really be asked and answered succintly over e-mail. Too often it starts an e-mail thread which involves too many replies. The problem is that most people don't know how to ask questions to get what they really want and that some questions require more than a text only format to adequately answer (which is great for person to person if there is a whiteboard around). My criticism of e-mail is not with the protocol (except perhaps for allowing HTML to be sent over e-mail), it's with the people who (over)use it. I currently work in a shop where I receive at most 50 e-mails per week. At my previous job I'd get that many within an hour. I am a hell of a lot more productive in my current environment, not just because of the e-mail, but I think the lack of e-mail helps. My coworkers and I realize that e-mail is not the best communication tool in all circumstances. In fact, for most of our communcations it's the tool of last resort.