BlackBerry uses a proprietary operating system, and therefore users are restricted to using its proprietary applications. When the BlackBerry goes down, as it did in the recent global outage suffered by its parent company, Research in Motion, users were completely cut off for several days from email and mobile applications, text messages and voice calls. While companies like to make their products proprietary so that they are the only game in town and can charge more, that line of thinking is old school, inconvenient and rapidly losing ground.

If "proprietary" is old school, "sharing" is new school and the Apple iPhone delivers it in spades. The Apple iPhone uses cloud computing where shared resources, software and information are provided to computers and handheld devices as a utility (like electricity) over the Internet. 

iPhone 4S also has a Personal Assistant application that's a great resource for answers when you need them fast. Known as "Siri," it is remarkably smart, and has personality to boot - even, one might say - a little bit of attitude. Siri also does more. It lets you use your voice to send messages, schedule meetings, place phone calls and remind you of important tasks, all by just talking the way you talk. With Siri, "Your wish is its command." One blog writer calls Siri a "seriously cool feature," and a "game changer."