This is a guest post by Gabriel Beltran, who writes a blog at blog.ibeltran.com. You can also follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/beltragx.

Let me start by saying that I am without a doubt, a Mac fanboy to the fullest. I use a new 15″ MBP, my wife has a white Macbook and a 20″ iMac and I have a variety of PPC iMacs, eMacs, and Powerbooks scattered throughout my home, so I won’t be able to say the following statements aren’t going to be slightly skewed by my love for all things Mac, but I will say that I genuinely gave Blackberry a try and was just not satisfied.

Getting the BlackBerry

About 6 months ago I purchased a BB Curve 8330 through my then provider Verizon Wireless. I was excited to make a jump into the smart phone realm for the first time, and from what I read in my research on the internet a Blackberry Curve was the place to start (also, while Verizon is a great provider…they don’t provide the widest selection of smart phones in my opinion). I’m the type of person who does tons and tons of research on a product before I buy it, so when my Curve arrived I felt like I was already an old hand at it.

Before I begin let me say that my phone was not provided to me by my employer and the company is not running a BES or an Exchange Server so I was using a Curve on a private account connected to the Verizon BIS service. At the end of the day, there were three things that made me switch, email, the browser, and lack of Mac support.

The Blackberry Experience

In addition to being a Mac fanboy I am what I like to consider a Gmail power user. All of my personal accounts are through Gmail and my company uses Google Apps to provide corporate accounts to its employees. So it was going to be essential that my phone was able to provide me at least a subset of what Gmail offers me on a day to day basis. Unfortunately what I discovered was a poor implementation of IMAP support, that at the end of the day would only sync my Inbox. Because I spend a lot of time emailing with customers, it was important to me to be able to view my labeled and archived email, as well as sent messages.

I went back out to the trusty old Internet and found that a lot of people were using the Gmail App to access their email. So I ditched the standard client and began to use the Gmail App for all my day to day email work. Unfortunately I ran into a an entirely new set of issues. Email was only checked over a set time which I couldn’t change, I wasn’t able to accept calendar invites, and there was no way for me to add attachments to my emails or save them to my phone. In the end, I ended up using both clients, with each providing me a small piece of the pie. It became very complicated and at times overwhelming, trying manage both applications over multiple accounts.

On to the Browser

When I first got my Curve I was genuinely impressed with the web browsing experience. Web Pages loaded fairly quickly and looked okay if not at least readable on the default browser. I had access to the blogs I frequented, as well as my RSS feeds through Google Reader.

Then my brother came to visit and brought along his iPod touch. It was an entirely different experience. Pages loaded just as quickly…but it was the whole page like I was viewing it on my personal computer! I could scroll and zoom on part of pages that I wanted to see more closely and was able to visit pretty much any site I could imagine. So there went that.

From that point on, using the Blackberry browser became a chore and something I would avoid. If I had my laptop close by, I would use that instead, if not, I just wouldn’t go to the site.

Finally, syncing the Curve with my computer was a nightmare. Blackberry didn’t offer any software like they did for Windows users, but pointed me towards a piece of software called PocketMac that hadn’t been updated it god knows how long. It didn’t integrate well with my iTunes library and was a hassle to get it to recognize my Curve. Users on the forums recommended a piece of software called The Missing Sync, but it was 40 bucks! I ended up just dragging and dropping music to the music folder on my Blackberry by hand.

Today with the iPhone

A few months later, my wife’s contract with Verizon was up and it was time for her to start looking for a new phone. After days and days of searching for something she thought she would like on the Verizon site as well as reading numerous reviews she became frustrated and claimed there was no phone that she had any interest in. Of course I took this opportunity to suggest we switch providers and both get iPhones. She reluctantly agreed and here we are.

Today, I’ve got IMAP access to my Gmail accounts that is very similar to the desktop experience. The only feature I lack that I was originally looking for is to accept calendar invites, which while slightly annoying was never a must have for me.

I know a lot of users complain about the lack of Push email to the iPhone. But I don’t find it at all. If you send me an email, and can’t wait 15 minutes for me to receive it and respond…you’re communicating with me in the wrong way. If its something quick text or call me. If not, call me and I’ll check the email.

The browser is amazing and a pure joy to use. Because I’m a Mac user, the syncing experience is simple and just works out of the box. Finally the apps available to me through the iTunes App Store are just amazing. Anything I’ve found lacking in the phone, or something additional that I’ve wanted I’ve been able to find an answer to in the App Store.

So what do I miss from the Blackberry?

One thing only. Background processes. If I could run multiple apps at a time on my iPhone I’d be in heaven. I can genuinely say that I have loved every minute of my iPhone and will never look back.