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iPhone vs Blackberry Curve Web Browsing

In September I wrote a post, "Duplicate Content Solution For Mobile Sites", which was about how to make a mobile version of your website and not get the duplicate content penalty. In that post I wrote "I've never had the chance of using an iPhone but I can't imagine that a few extra inches of screen space make that big of a difference". Well, last night my sister came to town for Christmas and I got to mess around with her iPhone for a bit. And the difference is huge.

It's not just the screen size that makes browsing better, it's the whole touch screen interface. I was simply amazed at how well the iPhone worked for browsing, and how well the sites I've developed look in it. Now, in my mind, there's simply no comparison between the experience I have browsing websites on my Curve (which now feels very clunky) and the iPhone.

I have to admit that I didn't like the touch screen keyboard because it felt alkward and I kept hitting the wrong buttons, but I suppose you get used to it. What I really want is a full touch screen and a keyboard. In five years when my wife and I get new phones, I hope that's the norm.

I'm not sure what this means for developing mobile websites for me, but now I realize why almost every mobile detection script has detection for iPhones (basically, so you can serve them the non-mobile content). I'm not sure if I'll ever get an iPhone though, simply because everyone I know who has gotten one around here says the coverage is horrible. Plus, I still want to check out a Storm and some other touch screen devices I've seen to see how those compare. I'd be interested to hear your opinions on which is the best mobile phone for web browsing.

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