Dragon’s voice to text application for the iPhone has been as big as I expected it would be. It’s been covered by all of the major technology blogs, and I know just about no one who has an iPhone who hasn’t downloaded the application. (A number of them did so at my urging, but none have any regrets about following my advice.)

I was surprised to discover how many of the people I know who had not updated their iPhone’s to the current firmware, however. Dragon Dictation requires the latest firmware in order to function properly, but this also gave me the opportunity to encourage them to do the appropriate updates. The comments have ranged from “Oh my, oh my” to “I love this app” to “this is the best apps I’ve ever seen on the iPhone!” Okay, that last quote was from me.

There have also been questions such as “Why is it that you can’t update your Facebook or Twitter status directly from the application?” I’m not sure why, but I hope that that is something that we will see in a future update.

Thankfully, the option to use the clipboard allows you to update those status says and more quite easily. Once you get the hang of using the clipboard feature it becomes second nature. It certainly has for me over the last weeks.

The comment that really got my attention, however, was one that observed that the application is anemic when compared to MacSpeech Dictate or Dragon NaturallySpeaking. I can’t disagree with that, but I will admit I actually find myself using the iPhone application far more than I do those applications — even though I have both.

Here’s why.

A. My iPhone is always with me. My MacBook isn’t.

There are times when I don’t have access to my notebook or my iMac but the iPhone is always there ready to quickly take some dictation and transcribe it in seconds.

B. Launch Speed

The iPhone application is incredibly quick to launch while the desktop applications take a few moments before they’re ready to use. In addition, the current version of MacSpeech Dictate requires you to either use a headset or be running an additional program if you want to use the built-in microphone on the iMac or MacBook Pro. While this isn’t a big deal it is certainly more complicated and takes longer than simply pulling out your iPhone, tapping the icon for Dragon Dictation and beginning to speak.

C. Accuracy

Personally I find the accuracy of Dragon Dictation on the iPhone to be as good or, at times, even better than the accuracy of the desktop applications. I’m not sure why this is the case but the application on the iPhone is remarkably accurate so long as I am speaking clearly.

D. Editing

While the iPhone application has limited options for editing compared to the desktop programs I actually find editing on it to be simple, accurate and straightforward. Any word that might not be correct is usually included in the correction box. You simply tap the problematic word, tap the correct word and move on. Going back over a piece of dictation and correcting it is quick, simple, and works beautifully.