I've got the HTC Magic Android phone as well as a BB Bold 9000 at the moment.

Have had BBs through work for years (started with a 7230, been through 8700, 8707 and now a Bold), but always had a basic no-frills Nokia as a personal phone, then got my Magic a few months ago on the day Vodafone released it.

Things you notice are that, yes the BB is a more mature OS, but at the same time it's a lot less fun, and while the BB OS may be mature, the consumer oriented parts of it are still very new and basic, specially in comparison with those in Android.

Android is a new OS, that you can actually see improving before your eyes, it really is noticeably better with every release, it really is a while since I ever thought that about the Blackberry. It's a more fun feeling OS, even with the stock UI (and most manufacturers are customising the UI in the phones starting to come out over the next few months), it was obviously designed from the outset with consumer apps in mind. The music app works better, far more like a MP3 player than the BB's, the camera/video app works better along with the gallery, playing vidoes locally, as well as streaming from Youtube, iPlayer etc just works, and in better quality and so on.

In the past I've likened the Android OS (on the "Google Experience" phones anyway) to a "Blackberry for the general consumer". It syncs everything I need with GMail (mails, contacts, calendar) in the same way the BB syncs with Exchange.

Apps-wise, yes the Blackberry has more, but they're a lot harder to find for someone new, traditionally Blackberry users are used to going to random websites and downloading and installing from there, there was never any central repository. The "Blackberry App World" is very new, still doesn't come pre-installed on a lot of devices, and there's a lot of big-name apps that aren't on there yet. Whereas the "Android Market" was on the devices from the start, and has a great selection of (very easily searchable) apps.

To sum up, if it is a personal phone, and not a work one - personally I would (and have) gone Android. Having said that, my totally non-techy, just-wants-a-phone-that-makes-calls-and-texts ex-girlfriend just got herself a Curve and loves it. Who knows!

I like the new Moto and I'm probably gonna get the Pre, too. See, it's not a matter of switching just yet because Android is still young, there aren't many apps available, just like the BB OS was just 2-3 years back when I wasn't gonna consider it just because of that. So I'll probably gonna get it anyway but it ain't no replacement for a mature technology like BB. It's gonna be soon though.

Yes, I totally agree, BB is a more mature OS but a bit rigid; the apps are quite expensive and the App World just started...but we hope for the best! Androi has a great future, as I said, in 2 years it's gonna explode.