I am going to get some hell for this one. Windows Vista and Blackberry are the best for me when it comes to staying organized and getting more work done. Windows Vista is not as reliable as Mac OS X and comparing Apple’s iPhone and Mac OS to Vista / Blackberry is a hard sell when it’s so much easier to use Apple’s offerings. From a usability and learning curve perspective, I love Mac and iPhone but there are days when I have 200 unread messages, 400 unread RSS feeds and my phone is ringing constantly where I wish that I wasn’t using a Mac. Here are some reasons.

Why Windows Vista beats Mac OS
1. Office 2007 is a fantastic suite of applications for Windows. I love writing with Word 2007. The Ribbon interface in Word and Excel is so beautiful and incredibly useful. I can write for hours in Word and I won’t get distracted. Outlook is the killer app for me and I miss using it on a daily basis. There isn’t a mail application today that is functional like Outlook and I really miss Microsoft Exchange Server. What a kick ass collaboration email system that integrates so well with Outlook. I could manage 1000 emails a day in Outlook for Windows and as a PIM (personal information manager), it was perfect. I bought a second monitor just to keep Outlook on day after day and really miss its power. Entourage 2008 for Mac is nothing to Outlook 2007 for Windows.

2. The interface of Windows Vista is incredible. The Apple dock is my most hated feature of The Mac OS. It takes so much space. I know it can be removed but it shouldn’t have to be. If i have the dock open, it takes 15% of my monitor. Pair that with the top menu bar of the Mac OS that’s always there and I now have 20% of my horizontal screen real estate taken from me the second I start up. Windows doesn’t force the top menu bar on you and the task bar of Windows is so minimal. I love organizing files on the Mac OS but the icons are just too distracting. Vista’s file navigation system navigation is sometimes slow but search in Vista is very fast. I use the Vista search to launch every application. I wish Spotlight was that accurate.

3. Compatability. I still have to keep Safari and Firefox open at all times on The Mac because there are sites that will work with one or the other. I hated Internet Explorer 6 because it lacked tabs but now, I’m all for it and wish I could run IE7 on my Macintosh.

Apple vs. The Other Smarthones

1. Windows Mobile is the most unreliable OS I’ve ever used and I would never go back but that integration with Microsoft Exchange was priceless. Also, the fact that I could organize my day, have instant access to email and contacts which was worked very well on Windows Mobile. The new HTC Pro with WinMo6 looks so cool. I miss the Today screen on Windows Mobile. It would show me missed calls, appointments and other things that are going on as soon as the I powered the phone on.

2. Blackberry didn’t easily show me everything that I have going on and I’d have to open up Calendar or Email (similar to the iPhone) but it was reliable as hell and I could keep a Blackberry going for days. My Blackberry would run for 3 days without needing a charge and that included constant Twittering, email and 2 hours of phone calls. I would restart it once a month and that was just because I was bored. It was a rock solid phone and the only issues I had was when our Blackberry Server would go down or RIM had some global outage.

3. Nokia and Symbian is a match made in heaven. Their interface is confusing and there’s just too much confusion when I use one but if someone really knows Nokia, they can really wow me. The N95 came out a long time ago but I’m amazed when it delivers turn by turn GPS directions. I love that the N95 has A2DP bluetooth stereo and you can listen to your Nokia in the car via wireless. The Nokia has a decent media player but SD card expansion means unlimited storage possibility. There’s a huge Symbian application development market too. Let’s also not forget that this phone can last for days on a single charge which the iPhone can’t do.

The iPhone needs to be more reliable, needs to help me be more organized and has to get a battery life that I can respect. Pretty doesn’t do it for me anymore. I need function and iPhone developers can’t do that for me. The Mac has a chance but I’m considering a complete switch back to Windows and Blackberry in the next 6 months. Seriously.