Is the iPhone a hard core business tool or just a great all in one gadget? For the last several years I've been a dedicated Blackberry user. I can receive and send email from 4 different accounts, I can synch with my calendar, address book and to do list on my Mac, the web browser is very good and it makes phone calls. The ability to play music or watch a video adds no value on the business side and I already have a 60 gig iPod Video for this. I can open / view word, excel, pdf and image email attachments.

Can you run your business with the iPhone when out of the office without a computer? Can you edit email messages with ease? On the personal side have you stopped carrying your iPod? Do you have concerns about the 8 gig size being too small?

I'm coming to the end of my T-Mobile contract and I'm considering the purchase of an iPhone, I would love to get some detailed feedback from current owners as well as those who have considered it but decided not to purchase it.

Thanks,
Ryan

Yep.

I just got back from Thanksgiving in Tucson - No laptop.

E

Feel free to ask me anything.

Two words: Push Email

With the iPhone, you have to actively push a button to check your email, if I understand correctly OR you can set up automation, but it eats up minutes checking it. Not sure if this is the case, but it's my fear and a reason why I am keeping my blackberry.

Nope. My iPhone pulls my email. I can do everything I could do with my BlackBerry and a lot more. Matter of fact, I would not be answering this if I wasn't on the iPhone, because the BB could never log into the forum. And there are no minutes to eat up, as internet is inlimited.

I ran my business from a hospital bed for 5 days last month using it, since they had no WiFi.

I think checking mail through your .mac account and checking IMAP accounts push e-mail directly to the iPhone as soon as it's recieved. It's the Exchange accounts that I've heard are the problem. I've not been able to find a straight answer out there about the iPhone's integration with Exchange (mail, calendars, contacts), but Sara France told me the other day that Jefferson Todd might have figured this out...

Is anybody using the iPhone with their Microsoft Exchange servers, and if so, is the iPhone syncing contacts, calendar, and mail correctly?

Interesting thread! I own the phone myself and have been wondering myself.

I used a Windows PDA for two years or more and it was a really effective tool (aside from being too big). Things like being able to search your contacts (or anything on the device), a to-do list that synced with the computer, a voice recorder... There are some basic functions that Apple didn't include and hasn't added with updates that really surprise me.

All that said, the iPhone is the coolest out there and is fun to use (Apple is good at that). As well, once third party developers have some freedom in February to start creating apps for the phone, things are going to get so much better!

I was just talking about this with my client (die hard blackberry user) this morning.

I thought it was just going to be the cool new gadget, but I was wrong.

I got the MarkIII and the iPhone fairly close together.
I thought the MarkIII would rock my world and be the camera of my dreams -- live up to the hype & then some.
I thought the iPhone would be just a fun gadget, not live up to the hype, and just be another nifty thing for macheads to go gaga about.

I was totally backwards.
The Mark III was a disappointment and went back.
The iPhone has blown by every expectation I've had.

My PC CRASHED & BURNED back in July. I was dead in the water. Thankfully I could hold off on processing client images, but I had email & important contacts that I had to keep up on.
I ran my business out of my iPhone for days. It saved my butt.

Plus, photos look so amazing on that screen -- such a big plus for us!

I think it's a robust business tool, the web browsing is better than BB (still waiting on flash, but that should be soon), and the visual voicemail is worth the cost alone.

The maps & traffic have also saved me more than once.

So, from a skeptic, I think it's been a strong addition to my business.

~Carey

Oh tisk tisk.




You can set iPhone to go check email every howevermany minutes from normal email servers (meaning it doesn't even require .Mac or Yahoo mail or any of that) and it'll chime whenever it gets mail. For this I actually setup another secret account with some creative ways to keep spam out of it, so basically, every time someone I care to talk to emails me, iphone will have it and chime within 10 minutes (my scheduled poll time).

This doesn't use minutes - it's part of the unlimited data.




And short answer to the above...... it's all in how you use it but I'd say it's a more serious business product than any of the competing products, mainly because it so effortlessly synchronizes with all of your other Mac apps. I keep my life in sync between 3 computers using a .Mac account, then my iPhone synchs to my main workstation - so if my wife adds a contact, a meeting note to my calendar, or a note about a verbal inquiry on a date - it's automatically in my iphone without any action required on my part. It's so freakin' "smart" that it's "serious" by default.

The only thing it's lacking (that I care about) is ability to send the same SMS text to multiple people. That's just dumb and hopefully will be updated, but you can also just send an email to 100 people if you want.

Also, comon.... you're a PHOTOGRAPHER - and there isn't another product on the market with as cool of a photo viewing ability. I use this to my advantage all the time and I'm currently at six weddings I've booked 100% because of the iphone and having that folio to show off. Just a month ago I ran into someone I knew from church in town. My phone rang, a quick call then they wanted to see the cool phone. "Check out the pics from this wedding last month....." - two minutes later "I knew you were a photographer but... wow... until I saw the pictures I had no idea that......" About three days later I got a call from one of her friends for a booking. This lady had pulled her friend over to a computer and pulled up my website so she could see the work - and she called as a result.

I don't care if it costs $1000 and it costs another $1000 to break your current wireless contract - it's made me money.

So I guess that would be "um, yea..."

Can you put a showit show in there?

No. It doesn't support flash.

You can make a Quicktime movie out of a slideshow and put it on there.

I'm new to the biz, and have only done a few lifestyle sessions with friends and family. For me, the iPhone has been essential. I use it to load photos from other photogs that I'm inspired by. I can flip through, get ideas for shots, and create much better images than I would on my own. Granted, I don't think I'll continue this practice as I gain experience and confidence. But, as a newbie, it's great to "learn" from the people that give me inspiration by using their work as guidance.

Not to mention, I can quickly check the weather, and search for the closest coffee shop wherever I'm at!

Do you guys use your iphone with a personal account or business account?

how about AT&T's service? I am VERY hesitant to switch back to them (I used to have Cingular) due to the poor customer service and coverage that I had. Has it truly gotten better? Verizon has such great coverage and cust. service, that I'm afraid that I'll regret the switch--even if the iphone is cool/essential to the biz.

AT&T in this area is decent. We've had them through 4 phones, including the iPhone, and I find that the coverage varies with each phone. The iPhone is NOT the best "phone" we've ever owned--I'm not overly impressed with its sound quality--but coverage has been pretty decent, and we're about to buy a second one.

great question....that's the only thing holding me back as well. I have had nothing but good things to say about Verizons coverage and service.

My husband was told by the store rep that business accounts can't have an iphone. Do all of you have it under a personal account?

Taria

I went to an AT&T store and was told that too, but I don't know what exactly he meant... He also told me the iPhone won't do "business email" to which I scrunched a heavy brow and said, "well I'd still like one" knowing he seemed mildly misinformed... Then he took my corporate Amex... (thoroughly confused!)

It's a blessing and a curse, but it if you run it and don't let it run you, you come out on top!

Blessings:
-I had a conference call while viewing and discussing an Excel spreadsheet that was in my email. Whoa!
-Google maps to client locations can be launched from your contacts. No last minute scramble to print directions!
-As noted, showing off photos is great!
-IMAP email synching is amazingly simple!

Curse:
-Default settings will chime you every 15 minutes when you get "C-AlIS! and r0LEX!" emails.
-You're having personal time but when that email comes in you feel like you just HAVE to respond right away! (Any smart phone, really)
-Facebook

So to combat the curses, I've implemented some of the GTD and 43Folders stuff I've learned. I turned the email chimes and auto check emails OFF. Now when I'm ready and have a few moments to kill, I will intentionally sit and check emails and respond accordingly.

This Saturday I actually turned all email accounts off to keep from checking the stupid thing every 10 minutes. I had a much more productive Saturday and my kids loved me for it!

-Leon

Leon, I think you just enlightened the photography world about a simple concept.... your phone, your email, your computer - it can all be turned off, and the world won't come to an end!

Ok.. Back to the topic at hand!

I have an iphone as well as a Windows Mobile-based phone. The iphone, to me, is more of a "fun gadget", whereas I wouldn't live without the WM phone. Granted, I'm also what you may call an 'extreme' power user, as well as a PC-only type of guy.

Synchronizing between multiple computers is essential to me. I can use my WM phone to edit a calendar entry as well as someone's new phone number, and within minutes, my two laptops & two desktops are all updated with this new information. I don't have to stick it in the cradle (like the iphone) to get it to sync. Also, unless they've figured out another way to do it, the Iphone was only able to 'pull' email from Exchange using IMAP - no synching going on there.

Granted, the iPhone has its own 'niche' to me ... it's fun, simple, and looks really nice. I can browse the web and watch movies on it, but I haven't found anything (that I use it for) that it does that my WM phone can't already do (possibly with add-on software, that is).

Just my .02