While everybody else is talking about apps for the iPhone, I've been playing around with my Blackberry's apps and some interesting things popped out at me.

I use a theme on my Blackberry that allows me to see my five favorite apps on the right side of the screen which opens up the remainder of the screen for the photo I've got as my home screen. I love having photos of people and places on my blackberry home screen so I use that theme most of the time. But I can quickly move to a screen with all of my apps on it.

Even when I am on the screen with all of my apps on it, I want them ordered in a way that the most used ones are on top and the least used ones are on the bottom.

So yesterday, when I was changing my home screen picture, I also started moving the apps around based on how I think I really use them. Most used would be on the upper left and least used would be on the lower right. I'd never actually taken the time to think really hard about what I use most and what I use least.

So here's the order of the top fifteen apps on my Blackberry (based on no real data, just my gut):

1) email - no surprise there
2) text messaging - absolutely true in the US, not as much in europe due to cost
3) BBM - blackberry messenger is my "batphone", only four people are on it - my family
4) browser - yes I wish it was the iPhone browser but I use my BB browser constantly
5) camera - just visit my flickr page to see how good the photos are on this phone
-------- that's my main screen most of the time
6) google maps - when I travel this could be my most used app
7) audio profile - i move this around constantly; quiet, vibrate, normal ring, loud ring
8) calendar - the one desktop productivity app that is more useful on my blackberry
9) address book - i don't use if very often but it's nice to have
10) voice - funny that the "phone" app barely makes the top ten on my phone
11) alarm clock - along with google maps, the killer app for travel
12) lock - i lock the phone whenever i put it in my pocket, probably should be #1 or #2
13) brickbreaker - i don't play but my wife and kids do and often play on my phone
14) calculator - i use this every once in a while
15) media - i rarely use this, when i do it's for managing ring tones

I really don't use any other apps on my Blackberry with the exception of the configuration apps (options, set up wifi, set up bluetooth, manage connections, setup wizard). I suppose I should remove the rest of the apps from the phone but can't be bothered to do that.

So here's the observations that popped out to me by going through this exercise.

My "phone" is a data device. The nine most used apps on it are data apps. I rarely use voice on my blackberry and when I do it's usually a conference call where I use the speakerphone application. I think text based messaging is just so much better than voice for a non face to face conversation.

I use three text messaging systems, email, SMS, and BBM. And I've (not sure if this was conscious) set them up in declining access. Everyone can reach me on email. Many less (but still a lot) can reach me on SMS. Only my family can reach