Yes, it is difficult to make the jump from buttons to touch screen but it is the way of the future, better embrace it now.
I have used Blackberry's and to be honest I hate them with a passion, they have to be one of the most awkward phones to use, OK the battery life and call quality on them is brilliant and the USED to be the phone for sending and receiving emails but I just don't like the menu structure or the general navigation around them. Now all phones have very good email functionality and the newest ones easily connect to exchange servers which is great and all you would need, better than you need in fact.
I was a Nokia man, now at the moment it's iPhone but i've been saying it for ages to my mates and they are coming into the European market in a big way but watch out Nokia, SE and Apple, HTC are in town and they are really setting up shop.. Smart move by them adopting the Android OS, SE have a few phones with it but the older version, HTC ship with the latest versions which is unreal but just not up to Apple standards... YET..