I have been a long time Blackberry fan, and even wrote Beyond411, a popular local search application for the Blackberry. But with the release of the iPhone 3GS, I finally reach my personal tipping point and bought an iPhone.

My story is a common one; AppleInseder reports that 12% of early iPhone 3GS buyers are Blackberry owners

Here are some the factors that pushed me to get an iPhone.

- The overwhelming momentum of Apple’s app store: Apple’s position in mobile apps is similar to what Microsoft enjoyed with Windows; I don’t believe RIM or any one else can catch up even if they match or exceed Apple’s features. There are a number of iPhone apps that I (and my kids) find fun and compelling.

- Poor developer support from RIM: My primary interaction with Blackberry developer support was when they forced me to change the name of Berry411 to Beyond411, part of their trademark enforcement of anything related to Black or Berry. Other than their friendly trademark police, I was disappointed at how little RIM had to offer to third party developers. They wanted a $2000 fee just to join their developer program, offered limited promotional opportunities, and seemed to subservient to the wishes of their carrier partners.

- OS Bugs and uncompetitive feature set: The Storm is no iPhone in terms of features or usability. Plus the OS has hanging bugs that don’t reproduce in the simulator; this makes my life as a developer miserable.

- Declining build quality: I can’t tell you how many Blackberry’s I’ve gone through. Gone are the tanks of old: as RIM has chased the consumer market, their phones have gotten cheaper and more fragile. The Curve I just replaced rebooted randomly; the two previous curves had broken USB connections, as did the 8800 before that. The Pearl style trackball is much more prone to gumming up than the jog wheel it replace. Recent keyboards are smaller and harder to type on than the older ones, again because of RIM’s wish to appeal to a broad audience.

In short, RIM is watering down the features that made it special, failing to keep up with the unique features of Apple and Palm, and losing the battle for the hearts and minds of developers.

I won’t pretend that there aren’t features I miss in the Blackberry. A virtual keyboard is no replacement a real one. Reading mail is definitely slower on the iPhone than the Blackberry– I have to wait several seconds the mail app to pull down new messages every time I launch it. For now I’m willing to live with these limitations in exchange for the other advantages. Blackberry could win me back, but it’s not easy to divide your loyalties between two phones.

Some Blackberry converts to the iPhone have asked me if I plan to create an iPhone version of Beyond411. Now that I’ve got one myself, that’s looking a lot more likely.