For me, Wednesday is iPhone 3G launch day

I had a MobileMe briefing scheduled last Friday. Apple PR called to cancel that chat, leaving me voice mail saying “things are a little crazy out here.”

“Crazy” is a good word. Another journalist used “meltdown,” also a good word. It’s not a reflection on iPhone 3G. Apple just tried to launch too many products at the same time. Luckily for me, I don’t have to wait in a million person-long line for iPhone 3G. Apple’s review unit will be in my hands on Wednesday. When it arrives, I’m going to configure it into an Exchange Server 2007 virtual machine running on a Harpertown Xserve, right alongside the T-Mobile BlackBerry 8800 that is my day to day handset. First I’ll see how well they interoperate. Then I’ll see what it’s like to switch from BlackBerry, with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, to iPhone 3G, with Exchange Server’s inherent device management.

Then I’ll carry iPhone 3G as my sole mobile device for long enough to know what it’s like to depend on.

I’ll document every step of my exploration along a timeline that begins the moment that iPhone 3G comes out of its box on Wednesday morning, and I’ll post updates, screen shots and video clips here as I proceed. My objective is to find out, independent of assertions made by Apple and AT&T, just what iPhone 3G’s enterprise strengths and shortcomings really are. Will there be BlackBerry features that I desperately miss, or is iPhone 3G going to make BlackBerry naught but a fond memory?

In the course of that switch, I’ll also get to experience the difference between EDGE and 3G, and coverage quality and plan differences between T-Mobile BlackBerry Unlimited and AT&T’s iPhone for Business.

Now, please excuse me. I’ve got a server to work on.