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How To Choose The Best Smartphone For Your Small Business
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By Mindy Charski
Don’t have a smartphone? You’re not alone.
Fifty-six percent of mobile phone users in this country don’t either, according to the research firm eMarketer.
But if you’re thinking of switching to a phone with more tools that could help you work more efficiently, you have some decisions to make.
Your starting point is choosing the operating system that fits you best.
You have four main options: Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, Research In Motion’s BlackBerry and Microsoft’s Windows Phone.
Chances are high you’ll choose one of the first two. About half of smartphone subscribers in the U.S. use phones with Android, according to the latest findings from research firm comScore, while about a third use iOS, which is on the iPhone.
Yes, BlackBerry was a pioneer in the market, but many say it just doesn’t offer many of the benefits people now want from their mobile devices.
“The BlackBerry phone is a smartphone on training wheels,” says Louis Rosas-Guyon, president of the business technology consultancy R-Squared Computing in Miami. “They’re great for email and that’s about it. When you buy a smartphone, email is actually the least of your capabilities.”
Get a Windows phone today, meanwhile, and you’ll be limited in applications.
“Right now [most] of the apps are for Android and iPhone, so if you get a Windows phone, you’re not going to have the same potential to do things that you can do with an iPhone or an Android phone,” says Chuck Martin, author of the “The Smartphone Handbook” (NFI Research, 2012) and chief executive officer of the Mobile Future Institute think tank.
So your choices have been narrowed.
But to help you decide between the iPhone and Android phones, you’ll need to consider four basic questions.
1. What other devices do I have?
IPhones work as well with PCs as they do with Apple products. And Android phones work as well with Macs as they do with PCs.
But since products from the same company share the same philosophical approach, Martin says your best bet is to buy an iPhone if you already own a Mac and an iPad or an Android phone if you already have an Android-based tablet.
“If you have the same technology, they all will sync together,” he says.
And moving from one to the other will feel more natural, he adds.
2. What options are important to me?
The iPhone—like other Apple products—is known for its intuitiveness.
“If you want something that is relatively simple to operate, an iPhone is perfect. It doesn’t even come with directions,” Martin says.
Usability and ease of access—as well as the hands-free options—were key decision points when Julia Kocs bought her first iPhone in 2008. At press time, the founder of KOCS Branding in El Cerrito, Calif., was using her fourth iPhone and was planning to buy iPhone 5.
Android, on the other hand, is available on many models from many manufacturers, so you may relish the opportunity to choose among features like screen size and weight. Likewise, perhaps you might prefer a thumb keyboard to the touch-screen keyboard that is standard on iPhones.
“Thumb keyboards are just faster for me,” says Rosas-Guyon. “I like the feel of the keys under my fingers. It reduces error and lets me type much faster. On-screen keyboards tend to be harder for my big fingers to navigate accurately.”
3. How can I save money?
Carriers generally subsidize the cost of the phone. That means they’ll often reduce the price of older models of both iPhones and Android devices with the purchase of a two-year contract.
But if you’re opting for no-contract plans, you may find the carriers don’t offer iPhones or, if they do, they cost more than Android handsets.
Also consider the costs of accessories you’ll need, like an extra charger.
Rosas-Guyon prefers devices that use a micro-USB charger rather than a proprietary one—like those from Apple—because they’re generally easy to find and aren’t very expensive.
4. What are the people around me using?
While not the highest priority, having the same technology as others in your office or industry could be a matter of efficiency.
“If you have an iPhone, and someone hands you an Android and says, ‘Here, use this,’—and vice versa—it’s like a foreign language,” Martin explains.
There may be social reasons to conform, too. KOCS, for instance, is an iPhone-dominant workplace.
“We have one person who still has a BlackBerry, and there has been incredible pressure on him to switch,” Kocs says, “and I think he will.”
Mindy Charski is a Dallas-based freelancer specializing in business journalism.
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