Cell Phones

Cell phones have evolved so much in the last 5 years

From just making calls to the newest Android and Iphones of today.

In 2011 3 platforms are used in medicine

Black Berry, RIM
Android, Google
Iphone, Apple

I have the Apple Iphone,

the most Apps ( 350,000 still growing)
The most Medical apps
Can be jailbreaked to use other functions
Easy to use

Average 16 to 32 GB of storage.

Android
Many apps ( around 150,000 growing every week)
many phones all different with different versions of Google OS
Almost as much Medical Apps
Easy to use
Can be Rooted to open it up completely

Black Berry
The least number of Apps ( only 30 to 50,000 not growing as much as the above 2)
Limited phone choices like the Iphone
Many business use RIM due to security.

these three are the most used with a 4th, Palm, HP bought webOS and Palm, but the focus for HP is not phones but computers for webOS, the future of the Palm phone is uncertain.

For medical students and Residents the new Smart phones provide a possibility of caring a library on your phone.

MEDICAL APPS IPHONE

For free you can download these Apps to begin:
Epocrates
Medscape
Merck medicus

these alone are worth the price of the phone.

Click the link and read on all the titles you could have ready to use on your phone.

Besides books, these phones are both wireless internet and WIFI enabled so you can surf the net as well, all in your pocket.

I use it all the time to research Diagnoses and drugs and treatments.

I have participated on an Iphone site (Forums) and like Android there are too many "FanBoys" for each phone. Its hard to get objective information about each phone from these forums since each group tends to promote these phones as the best and the other phone not worth the money.

When one objectively considers the phones by Features, Functionality, and Availability of medical software, Iphone was ahead to date, March 2011, but Android is catching up and may be equal in the coming year. I've had an Iphone and thus had many programs and references already so I stuck with Iphone, before Iphone I had a Palm.

At Android 29% of the market and Iphone 27% the market both these phones are over Half of the smart phone market together and since they share so many apps I feel you cannot go wrong with either. I have however, seen a larger medical library with Iphone then Android.

In my family we have more Androids then Iphones ( I'm the only Iphone) and so far the Androids are just as useful and functional and have plenty of apps to be well worth the price.

Iphones are well made, does have the most apps and its available on Verizon and AT&T, but the current is 3G ( no 4G- LTE) You cannot add memory to an Iphone so if you buy the 16GB ( like I did) your stuck with 16GB unless you sell it and buy the 32GB model. Iphone updates every 12 months now, once you buy the Current one its countdown till Apple push's its users to upgrade.
Apple users call this "Refresh". The rumored Iphone 5 will have a dual core processor, bigger screen and 4G ( LTE) possibly, may be worth the upgrade.

Android are well made, has many of the same apps as Iphone and is available with just about everybody. it comes in 4G, the memory is anywhere from 1GB MicroSD only to internal 16GB with expandable MicroSD. All Android phones memory can be upgraded. There are so many phones that you will have to decide the phone thats right for you.

We have Samsung galaxy Captivates. 16GB internal, 1ghz processor and expandable by 16gbMicroSD to total 32GB.

These phones are small computing devices and very powerful.



I have no real preference, I like both phones.

LINKS:

IPHONE HTC Samsung Motorola