'Bye bye, BlackBerry. I'm leaving you for iPhone'

In the same week as a bank invited its staff to switch from BlackBerry to iPhone, one ‘Irish Times’ journalist made the same switch. Is he lovelorn or head over heels?

MONDAY

When it came, the separation was a shock in the end. Nothing quite prepares you for it. Despite dozens of phone calls every day, hundreds of weekly text messages and any number of e-mails in between, I realised that we were no longer fulfilling each other. The novelty had worn off.

It sounds terribly cliched, but in the beginning we were almost like an extension of each other. Last thing at night and first thing in the morning, or sometimes at the most inopportune moments, my fingers would reach out, longing for an embrace. The response would come in the way of a gentle shudder or maybe a quick flash. All in all we’d been together three years, but in the past few months something had changed. In a typical male fashion I made up my mind to break off all contact and set my sights on a younger, sleeker, perkier model. The time had come to dump my BlackBerry for an iPhone.

TUESDAY

Financially, my big switch made sense. BlackBerry has a monthly add-on fee for e-mails, and the battery life underperformed hugely after a few months. I’m not alone, it seems, as Standard Chartered bank in the UK has also begun replacing staff BlackBerrys and PDAs with Apple’s pioneering handset.

This morning my new iPhone arrived in the post, less than 24 hours after I ordered it. First impressions? A stunner. Jet black and shiny, with a far bigger screen than I was used to. Determined not to lose any of my contacts, I set about downloading a programme to sync the iPhone with my existing phone numbers.

Hours later I finally gave up and returned to using my BlackBerry for calls and texts. It just wasn’t happening with the iPhone. Making calls was an effort – where was the “end call” button? And, with no tracker ball to fiddle with, you have to do the scrolling yourself. Texts were coming out all wrong, and I had to physically check for e-mails. I don’t mind admitting this: going to bed, I wondered had I just made the biggest mistake of my life.

WEDNESDAY

New day. New beginning. Although I hadn’t quite managed to transfer all my contacts, I was able to switch enough to function. I also set up my e-mail, and texting was beginning to get easier as my fingertips adjusted to their new role. By the end of the day I was getting the hang of it. I took the train to Dublin and back, and the journey sowed the seeds for my emerging love affair with my iPhone. I flirted with the whole new world of apps. I was inundated with advice on what to download, from flashlights to murder-mystery games and detailed maps. Problem is I don’t own a credit card, and the registration process didn’t accept Laser. So I had to ask the girlfriend for her Visa number. I felt like I was 15 again. This meant she would now to able to monitor what I downloaded and when. Damn. The honey-of-the-month application would have to wait.

THURSDAY

I’m a stickler for being on time – always early. It’s a disease, and I get edgy if someone is even a minute late. At least I used to get edgy pre-iPhone. Now, if someone is late, it’s not a problem. “Take your time, don’t sweat,” I tell them. I’ll be waiting calmly, browsing apps, catching up on Twitter or just getting my phone to make swish and swoosh noises. Today, I found out that when I plug my iPhone into my Mac laptop they are at one with each other. They sync and do lots of other clever stuff together that I am only beginning to understand. It’s like when your child begins to make friends on their own for the first time. You can only stand back in wonder.

One quibble. I keep thinking there should be more buttons. My BlackBerry had 38; the iPhone has one. It takes getting used to. The alarm went off in my old BlackBerry this evening. I could hear it pining and whimpering for attention somewhere in the house. I didn’t even know where it was. Imagine that.

FRIDAY

The BlackBerry is dead. Long live the iPhone.