Let me start this by saying up front that I have used an iPhone for about 10 minutes, and that was to send someone’s pictures to a website for them. So, I’m not going to get into how great it is. I do own an iPod Touch, and I will state for the record that I think its interface is top notch. I’ve heard from a number of sources, however, that email is problematic on the iPhone, though supposedly the iPhone 3g corrects a lot of the perceived problems. Since I’ve never owned one, I don’t really feel like I should get into the relative merits of the iPhone, other than to say I’ll gnaw off an arm before I’ll go on the AT&T network – which, taken with the fact that it doesn’t work for Exchange in my environment, pretty much nixes my option of ever having an iPhone

I owned a T-Mobile G1 (the Google Android phone) for three days before returning it. I could go on and on about all the positive features that Android brings to the table. It’s a slick phone OS, considering it’s a version 1.0 release. I’m impressed, and you can bet I’ll be following its development.

I currently use a Blackberry Curve 8320 from T-Mobile. It’s my primary phone. I got it as part of a pilot program from work, and decided that since I hate carrying multiple phones, I’d just go ahead and make it my primary. It’s a stubby, not-at-all-elegant piece of hardware. It’s too wide to use comfortably as a phone without a headset (for which I use the incredibly elegant Jawbone gen 2), the screen is too small for video use, the camera is sub-standard, and it’s generally a temperamental piece of crap.

Having said that, why do I continue to use and love my ugly little baby?

Simply put, it just works.

I have some rather specialized needs from a phone if it’s going to give me my email and a pseudo-online experience. I have one Exchange email account, and 4 Gmail accounts. I need to receive email on all of them as near to real-time as possible. I do not want to get an alert 5 minutes after it’s been generated. I need it as soon as possible.

You can imagine that I was really anticipating the Android phone, even more so when I learned that it would be available on T-Mobile’s network first. Lots of people have complained about T-Mobile’s 3G network, but I didn’t encounter a single hitch with it. It was snappy and things loaded quickly for me. It helps that Atlanta is saturated with TMo’s 3G.

My enthusiasm quickly diminished from the point where I actually purchased the phone. First problem is that it’s locked to one Gmail account. From a technical point of view, that’s not entirely true, since you can add up to 5 other email accounts via POP or IMAP. Those four accounts, however, are fetch email, as opposed to push, and the fetch cannot be set lower than 5 minutes. Strike one. I need all of my Gmail to be pushed to my phone.

I thought about trying to work around it by setting all of my ancillary Gmail accounts to forward into my primary, but that’s where the Android hit strike two. Despite being an OS from Google, there is no provision for doing a send-as in the main Google account. So, I can’t even do a half-assed workaround to get past the problem. That’s just plain inexcusable. Google controls the OS, Google controls GMail – Google should be mimicking every function on the web interface. If they can code in the keyboard shortcuts, they can code in the send-as. I can only assume that this is a feature that will be forthcoming in a service release.

The next strike was when I realized that, since the phone is tied to one GMail account, I wasn’t going to be able to use the Google Apps (spreadsheet and writer) from multiple accounts. That’s a big problem, as was the realization that I’d only be able to use one of my Google Talk accounts (A problem for me since I chat on one, and do ping.fm updates from the other). Strike three, and the G1 is OUT!

My Blackberry is ugly, but it works. It has neither an interface as pretty as a G1 or an iPhone, nor any kind of rich ecosystem of apps like those phones. Really though, how many tip calculators or flashlights do I need? I can calculate a tip in my head, and the bright white screen on my Blackberry lights up enough of the room so that I don’t stub my toe in the dark.

In exchange for those minor issues, I get my Exchange email, and all of my additional GMail/Pop inboxes pushing email to me as soon as it hits my mailbox. I have apps for Facebook, Twitter, and Flickr. I have a couple of neat games, and some decent themes. I can’t really say I need anything more than that from a handheld device.

I went into the purchase of the G1 knowing that it would not do Exchange in my environment without going through OWA. My criteria for keeping the phone was simple – if I’m going to have to work around not getting my corporate email (which is important, since I use it for monitoring servers and environmental at work, for which they pay me), then everything else was going to have to work perfectly out of the box.

I’m not the only one grousing about this, either. Google’s lack of understanding about how a lot of people manage their email will harm them in the near-term, I think. Until they get with it and add support for multiple accounts which can interface with multiple services, and figure out a way to get Exchange email, the Android will remain an enthusiast platform, with no real chance of invading RIM’s turf in the Enterprise.