With the release of the new iPhone G3, the debate arises again. Which is better, the iPhone or the Blackberry? The question is not just acaemic to iPhone developers and the customers who use both brands.

With high feature models like the Blackberry Storm and all kind of publicity as the “first” smartphone, Blackberry holds a huge chunk of the market still. While iPhone has made inroads, in the buttoned up business market, the Blackberry still dominates.

When it comes to size, there is little to quibble about. The Blackberries are slightly smaller, the iPhone slimmer, and to most customers, especially iPhone application developers and users, the size is not fundamentally different.

Browsing Experience

However, the web browser on the iPhone is a quality experience. Using the Safari mobile device with the G3 upgrades, getting online is faster than with any of the other smartphone. With the new speed upgrades, iPhone definetly has the speed advantage over the Blackberry.

The new autofill features populate boxes quickly and require less typing – always a benefit on a phone.

Some argue that the iPhone also displays websites with complex elements better than the Storm as well.

If you're a heavy email user on your smartphone, then even an iPhone developer will likely give the edge to the Storm. The Blackberry line is fundamentally a communication system, and is a superior messaging device.

The Storm allows the user to work with all email addresses in a single mailbox dedicated to all messaging. If you want to address individual email addresses separately, you can also take that route, but you are able to work with all of them in one in-box – a time saver for many people.

Missed call and text messaging alerts also show up in the unified mailbox, another time saving device.

Multi Tasking

One area where iPhone concedes that they don't excel is in multi-tasking. Although the iPhone G3 added cut and paste ability, it still doesn't have multi-tasking features. Apple says they have avoided this feature because of the battery drain, and Blackberrys such as the Storm do have battery issues.

However, even iPhone app developers like the Storm's ability to have several apps open at once and flip easily between them.

Multimedia

The iPhone shines in the multimedia player area, which is not news to any iPhone game developers or iPhone users. With the new G3 ability to shoot video and the iPod quality audio and video players.

The music quality is outstanding and the video seamless.

The iTunes store experience also elevates the iPhone far ahead of the Storm. Although the Storm offers over the air applications as well, they're hard to find. With the unified store for iPhone applications, iPhone developers have a single place to find customers, and customers have a single place to find every application available for the device.

The Storm's lack of connectivity to WiFi networks is a glaring omission in the usability of the device. iPhone's ability to take advantage of wifi networks wherever it is makes it more of a mini computer and less like a mobile device.