As the developer of the YWN Radio app I’m biased, but here’s my honest opinion.
BlackBerry was great in its day. Mobile email, some form of internet browsing, productivity at its best. Unfortunately, their hardware is now subpar and their experience is sluggish and choppy. Stay away from BB if you value your time and money.
Android is a marriage of iPhone and BlackBerry. It has a developer community, unlike BlackBerry, so it has some apps, but the experience is inconsistent from app to app. Hebrew support is poor. Android updates are always going to fix things in the future, but never now. Google keeps promising things in “the next release”. Avoid avoid avoid.
Apple pushed mobile apps (which Palm, alav hashalom, actually pioneered) to the fore of societal consciousness. Being that they brought the state of mobile computing to the layman in the way that they did, it’s a wise move to use their platform.
As for the “a word”, if you believe in technology addiction as its own entity, you’re too dumb to own a smartphone. It’s a symptom of human nature. We, as humans, crave social interaction, which the internet facilitates in unprecedented ways. Hence the seeming “addiction”. It’s natural. Hashem created us like that.
Whatever decision you make, use your smartphone for good things in good health. Kol Tuv.
Edit:
Also, if you’re looking for a viable alternative to iPhone, consider a Windows Phone. I’ve used it too and I can confidently say that it’s a solid phone. It has apps. It has a “get in get out” design. It’s what BlackBerry should be. Windows Phone 7 is nearly as good, if not just as good as iPhone.
Shavua Tov, Kol Tuv.