Verizon Wireless and its partner Vodafone Group will soon start selling the BlackBerry Storm, a touch screen smartphone, to customers in the U.S., Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, the companies announced today. While they didn’t announce a specific date and talked about making it available in “fall,” it shouldn’t come as a surprise if the device hits the market really soon. Verizon is getting clobbered by the iPhone, according to some estimates. Vodafone felt so envious that it straight up copied iPhone screenshots and pasted them onto the Storm’s body, indicating that they still don’t have a clue on what iPhone is all about. (Photos below the fold.)
The Verizon Wireless version of the device will work on the Verizon’s EVDO Rev A 3G Network and (2100Mhz) UMTS/HSPA 3G along with older technologies such as GSM, GPRS and EDGE, making it capable of receiving emails and phone calls around the planet. The Vodafone version will have the same features minus the support for CDMA and EVDO networks.
One of the reasons why Blackberry Storm has gained so much attention is because it has a touch screen that actually depresses, giving users the feeling that the screen is being pressed and released with a gentle “click” — just like on a regular keyboard. RIM is betting that this is going to help them stop the Apple iPhone juggernaut which is slowly but surely rolling towards the Canadian device maker.
The new device does indeed have clever features, such as a 3.2-Megapixel camera, a better browser with built-in RSS support and 1 GB of on-board memory. The screen has 480×360 resolution at 184 ppi and the phone itself has battery life that allows approximately six hours of talk time on 3G networks and 15 days of standby time. Of course, once you start using the device, the battery will drain faster than sea water off a schooner’s deck. This seems to be enticing enough to try out — if nothing else then comparing how well it stands up against my iPhone. Why there is a good chance they will offer Mac support.
(*) Launches but is not on sale just yet.
4 trackbacks so far
2:36 AM PT
[...] The Apple-infused pictures have been replaced by pictures of the actual BlackBerry Storm interface — which looks fairly nice in its own right. The device is the first BlackBerry to completely do away with the physical keyboard in favor of the touchscreen-only approach. But those who hate the fact that the iPhone has no keyboard may be interested in the Storm’s touchscreen which apparently depresses and gives back a “click” to simulate actually touching a keypad, according to GigaOM. [...]
3:16 AM PT
[...] Blackberry Storm with Global 3G Launches* [...]
11:55 AM PT
[...] the impressive Blackberry Storm (the first one with a touchscreen) just announced, should we worry about a negative impact on American couples’ [...]
5:56 PM PT
[...] RIM has released a much better effort in the form of their first ever touch screen Blackberry : the Blackberry Storm. It has a 3.2-Megapixel camera, a better browser with built-in RSS support and 1 GB of on-board [...]
9 comments so far
10:11 PM PT
If any phone is going to give you cancer, it’s probably the Storm, with its multiple radios.
10:26 PM PT
@Raymond……Scary! :-)
11:31 PM PT
With an 8830 World Edition from RIM, I already have service on GSM and CDMA networks, as well as legacy networks. However, one downfall I’ve discovered is the GPS is tacked onto the CDMA side of the device and not available when connected via GSM/GPRS. Any chance the Storm will enable GPS support for all its network coverage that is touted?
5:32 AM PT
There’s now a UK release date - see the end of this post (an update today) (link)
8:12 AM PT
My experience with my iPhone, or what other companies should do better.
I got it as a gift, so I’m not emotionally attached to it.
Hands free bluetooth does not work with our Lexus, totally embarrassing for Apple (Nokia, RIM work just fine).
No todos, except after market(same as above)
No C&P, OMG.
No voice notes, same as above.
Email works just fine. I have my own imaps server with an elaborate rule extension. And since I use it as a queuing system instead of IM, no problem with updates.
Where the iPhone really shined was. We stopped during our annual Foliage tour to find a small Lake near a town I knew it was there somewhere. Zooming in and out the cars build in GPS and moving on the screen was just to much pain. Got the iPhone out, zoomed around, found the lake, typed the address in the car GPS, and of we went. But GPS without a connection, in the middle of nowhere (Colorado Mountains) is useless on the iPhone, need to be near a town.
Build in iPod comes in handy if you drive through the middle of nowhere.
To sum it up, good to excellent consumer device. Not so good business device.
Or in other words somebody has to build a business device with consumer features, since we will use these devices both ways. There is a lot of overlap between “free” time and “business” time these days.
11:54 AM PT
No WiFi, are you kidding, Does not sound too Smart!
12:02 PM PT
@ronald:
iPhone App Store has free apps for IM, VoIP, TO DOs, and voice notes. There are also 4,000 other apps the include even voice dialing and many many others.
I can not download WiFi, Mac Syncing or multi-touch for the Storm!
Bluetooth on my iPhone works perfectly in my Toyota and with my Garmin nuvi and various headsets I have tried. Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes support is all there on the iPhone. It just depends if YOUR company will support it, not the other way around.
GPS on the Storm will cost you $10 extra a month without a choice and will also be USELESS if there is no signal.
1:33 PM PT
@Paul
what can I say. I know. But was expecting a little more supported from Apple. Who knows if any of these small todos, voip whatever providers will be around for the live time of the product?
Bluetooth, yes that’s why I mentioned my car maker. As they say, your results may differ, but we have 2 of them. Just read the Apple forum about it.
But MS Exchange, Lotus Notes, or even Google mail, how embarrassing. Based on 19th century understanding of how information is processed and stored. Sorry I will stick with my system, which as I said works fine.
You forgot to mention that the iPhone caches maps. So it can still be useful if you have searched previously, even in dead areas. How many and at what detail I don’t know.
Relax :-)
3:07 PM PT
There is an interesting talk called “Global Mobile” at Stanford Univ. on Oct 21st, where Device Anywhere, MoBlast and KPCB’s Cyriac Roeding are on the panel. This may be a good venue for some of you to ask them questions about how to build and test applications on mobile platforms that can run anywhere in the world. Goto (link) for more details.