Both devices are available from national carriers: the Apple iPhone is from AT&T Wireless, and the Samsung Saga SCH-i770 is available from Verizon wireless. They have almost exactly the same cost for purchase and yearly plans, but they have very different sweet spots that they address.

Both devices are cell phones and have the features that cell phone users have come to expect, text messaging, per-minute billing, caller ID, voice mail, and national calling. Both the iPhone and Saga cost $199 to purchase, which requires a two year contract.  Both offer comparable voice plans, as of January 2009, each has a 450 minute plan for $39.99 up to an unlimited plan for $99. Both use comparable high speed data networks, but charge $30 per month to use them. Both carriers currently charge extra for SMS text messaging starting at $5 per month for 200 messages.

AT&T has the ability to rollover minutes, which is a very attractive feature, especially on the lower end plans. This is because once in a while you could have a very busy month that can be buffered with rollover minutes. Verizon has an unlimited data plan for $44 per month which allows you to use the device as a PC modem. This can be very useful in rural areas, or areas where there are no Wi-Fi hot spots. Both devices are locked to their particular carriers, neither provides an interchangeable SIM that can be shucked for connection on another carrier.

Both devices have the ability to read email, both can connect and sync with Microsoft Outlook, one of the most popular business email, contact, and calendar programs in use.  The iPhone also supports POP3 mail, as well as IMAP mail like Google gmail, and Yahoo Mail.

Now the two devices start to diverge. The differences are quite distinct once you get beyond the basic smart phone features.

The iPhone memory size starts at 8GB. The Saga has only 200MB, but it can be expanded with smart card memory sticks. The Samsung Saga runs Windows Mobile 6.1 operating system, which has an SDK from Microsoft and can run custom apps developed at any location to support business and personal use. The iPhone has an SDK that requires all supported applications to be distributed through the iPhone App Store. So any developed application is open to all iPhone users. The other option is to jailbreak your iPhone, which would be a support nightmare in a business environment. It is an interesting turn, that the closed OS of Microsoft  Windows Mobile powers the most open development and installation platform, while the open OS of Apple iPhone powers the most tightly-controlled development and installation platform.

The iPhone touch key pad soundly defeats the tiny tabs in the Saga QWERTY keyboard. And forget about the stylus keyboard that appears in the display window. The Windows mobile platform beats the old Palm OS, and has rendered it obsolete, but the iPhone user interface is much better thought out and is a much better experience. With more logical auto-completes, letters that pop up and display what you are typing, and the fact that the letter selected is not the letter typed until you release the key, the iPhone typing experience is the best of all hand held devices. With an app called Easy Email, you get even bigger keys by turning the iPhone horizontally. The iPhone telephone user interface also crushes the Windows Mobile user interface easily. When the iPhone is in phone mode, the whole screen is devoted to strictly phone features. The Windows Mobile screen is more of an everything at once interface.

With Windows Mobile 6.1, Microsoft slightly improved the user interface over the version 6.0. Also, Windows Mobile 6.1 adds support for the pointing device. The Samsung Saga i770 has this as a central button/track pad to move the mouse pointer arrow. Now the Windows Mobile phone operation is all one-handed.  With this feature, I boldly announce that the stylus is dead. I always disliked the stylus and its association with the Palm scribbling. As mentioned above, the stylus typing on the tap screen is nearly useless too, but better than scribbling. I am very glad that Microsoft elected not to extend the Palm shorthand.

If you are a medium to large business, and have an IT organization that is required to support applications on mobile phones, you could never choose the iPhone. This is Bad News for you iPhone fanbois, who seem to be the worst enemies of Apple and the success of their products. The Windows Mobile Platform is the platform of choice when deciding to roll out a custom application, say for Sales force support.

The Samsung i770 devices being tested since the devices have been released in November have had some battery life problems. Of three Windows mobile 6.1 devices tested in the group I am in, the Palm Treo 800w from Sprint and the Samsung Epix AT&T have been less troublesome. However, the thumb pointer pad of the Saga has been a big selling point.

In terms of weight, the iPhone weighs 4.7 ounces, while the Saga weighs in at 4.59 oz.  The iPhone seems much sturdier. The older 2G iPhone even more so with its metal back. The iPhone screen also does not scratch. The sound quality is much better with the iPhone microphone vs the Saga microphone.

One major complaint is that Verizon seems to have disabled the GPS feature of the phone. Why would you do that? Apple includes GPS and Google maps built into the phone. All the other features built into the iPhone beat the out of the box apps for the Saga hands down. But there are many downloadable apps for the Windows Mobile platform.

In the end, for a personal phone, the iPhone is the obvious choice. For a phone that must be distributed and supported by a business IT network, the iPhone does not fit at all.