[Merged] Blackberry Storm - RIM's New Touchscreen Blackberry

[Bryan Bowler]

Seriously, from a rational business perspective, how is the iPhone in serious trouble from a product that's only announced, but is not even on the market yet? It's called hype and all talk.

I'm not doubting RIMs presence in the Business world or the quality of their products. But to make the statement that the Storm will severely dent iPhone sales (this early in the game) is ridiculous.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

You have got to be kidding me. BlackBerry is losing traction in the smartphone market. People care more about INTEGRATION than features. Saying "Oh, I have a 10MP camera in my phone, but NEVER USE it" isn't going to cut it. People want integration, which is where Apple pwns. Blackberry is a great phone, but remember, the iPhone was the FIRST. If the RIM Storm beats it, it's not a huge feat. iPhone came first, and is already in the SECOND iteration. Storm hasn't even been released.

Also, learn to make paragraphs. Anyway, if I went to my friends to see what phone they'd get if not an iPhone, they WON'T say Blackberry. I'm not saying Blackberries suck, it's just that iPhone is the most popular phone ever, and is slowly going into the business market. Blackberry is STRICTLY business market. "Divide and conquer" iPhone is dividing among the different cellphone markets, pwning each one. Blackberry is stuck with business.

 

[Bryan Bowler]

If the Storm does in fact only have 1GB of memory and no wi-fi, then we can close this discussion right now. No way is it going to be an "iPhone killer"!

 

[SubZer0]

... (if you guys don't know what prosumers are I don't have enough energy to explain and just look it up)....

Wow,
Prosumer....hmmm what could that be. Oh yes, a made up word that is some sort of bastardized form of either producer/consumer or professional/consumer. Utilized by those who wish to sound condescending towards those who are merely consumers. Which, by the way, is how you come across in this post.

You may also want to look at this from a different perspective and look at what kind of impact the iPhone is having on RIM and their target demographic.

Mark

 

[Brandonsc]

After reading about the RIM Storm and analyzing factors even as an iPhone owner and mac user I conclude that unless Apple greatly improves..........blah blah blah

Did you just come here to stir **** up? Go cheer for Blackberry in a RIM forum.

 

[Brandonsc]

bastardized

Bastardized... What a great word. I'm gonna try and use it tomorrow.

 

[redman042]

The OP is going a little overboard here. I will throw him a bone and agree that the Storm, at least on paper, probably represents the biggest iPhone challenger yet, and it will sway some buyers away from the iPhone. But will it be the huge interruption to the iPhone's sales that is portrayed here? I seriously doubt it.

Blackberry is venturing into uncharted territory here. They have never designed a touchscreen smartphone before, and no one has done a click touchscreen before. I'm sure it will be nice in many ways, but it is VERY likely there will be drawbacks too. Maybe some big ones. I will be very surprised if their touch screen is as responsive as the iPhone's. Very surprised.

Second, the BB and the iPhone generally attract different types of buyers. There are some who will go either way (I considered both before going iPhone), but I'd call that a minority.

Third, Apple is not done innovating. Not by a long shot. They have held back on some sorely needed features like cut and paste, and it wouldn't surprise me if Jobs is ready to drop some new bombs when he needs them. I'm not even sure he needs them here. But if the Storm prompts Apple to step it up a notch, we all benefit. I'm very happy to see the Storm enter the market.

 

[iansilv]

Check out the new black berry storm promo art

This is hilarious until they take it down- iphone pictures on the vodaphone site:

http://blackberry.vodafone.co.uk/storm/specifications/

 

[mattocs]

They have held back on some sorely needed features like cut and paste, and it wouldn't surprise me if Jobs is ready to drop some new bombs when he needs them.

Could copy/paste and MMS be added to the iPhone by a future software update, or is it more complicated than that?

 

[iBeast]

After reading about the RIM Storm and analyzing factors even as an iPhone owner and mac user I conclude that unless Apple greatly improves its software offerings and hardware offerings RIM Storm will take a huge dent in Iphone sales and possible shift the Iphone product cycle analysts have created before. Blackberry in the north american markets is ubiquitous and is known for its high tech high quality phones. With its strong command of the corporate sector markets the blackberry storm is RIMs most successful attempt at making gains in the prosumer market (if you guys don't know what prosumers are I don't have enough energy to explain and just look it up). The iPhone's strength was its all in one platform in hardware and software as well as being an advanced touch screen multimedia device. But as seen we consumers have many complaints, lack of video recording, lack of voice dialing ,poor camera extremely buggy new software, lack of turn by turn gps, an NDA and an arbitrary app approval system. Mac's main problem is that up until now it didn't need to listen to consumers because it was truly the only one of its kind, HTC diamond or samsung instinct are not truly the same style of phones as RIM or apple are due to price range as well as technology factors. RIM has an advanced operating system that is has been with for a long time with already a large base of programmers for it. Now the main thing many mac fans (idiots who don't understand consumer behavior) will say that the hard drive difference makes iphone and storm different and the iphone superior. But honestly most consumers consider these memory cards not that much of a hassle. Apple for awhile has been able to rest on its laurels but now not anymore. Android doesn't have the same competition abilities as RIM due to the fact its at the mercy of phone makers. Blackberry will sell at least 4 million storm in its first year in the US markets alone as now companies can have an executive multimedia phone, outside of the North American Markets 5 million mostly in western Europe and India. Blackberry users who came to the iphone will leave again and people who were turned off by bad press of the iphone will see the storm as better choice. Apple has a choice to compete by improving processor speeds as well as more physical features to compete or it will find itself in 2nd to a well established storm system.

Paragraphs please.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

Third, Apple is not done innovating. Not by a long shot. They have held back on some sorely needed features like cut and paste, and it wouldn't surprise me if Jobs is ready to drop some new bombs when he needs them. I'm not even sure he needs them here. But if the Storm prompts Apple to step it up a notch, we all benefit. I'm very happy to see the Storm enter the market.

DING DING DING we got a WINNER!!!!!!!!

I guess Apple just going to seat around and let RIM come in and punk them , by the time the Storm comes out Apples going to have something to counter them. Also the iPhone is the best touch phone on the market i'm sure it's going to stay that way for a while.

Another thing to note a lot of BB user don't like touch screen phones, so I really don't see them trading in their Curve's and Bold's for the Storm

 

[Phil A.]

Wirelessly posted (iPod touch 32GB: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F138 Safari/525.20)

whilst it is pretty funny, I think Vodafone could find themselves in pretty hot water over this: false advertising, misrepresentation and breach of copyright for starters...

 

[Bryan Bowler]

I'm sorry, but this guy doesn't have time for paragraphs. His strength lies within his enormous business savvy and incredible insight regarding new products. He's discovered the iPhone killer. The device that will "interrupt product cycle".

I'm sure Steve Jobs is calling an emergency meeting in Cupertino first thing tomorrow morning to discuss future plans for the iPhone now that the 1GB Storm has been introduced.

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

WOW thats CRAZY!!!! Now check this out https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/576537/

 

[iansilv]

AWESOME that's GREAT! You're COOL! SOOO COOL!

 

[Michael CM1]

I just checked and, shocking, the link doesn't work anymore! Glad that I printed it to PDF at work. As the Brits would say, that page was famously horrible.

 

[Randman]

iPhone killer.


Hmmm, like Zune was an iPod killer?

 

[Michael CM1]

I'm sorry, but this guy doesn't have time for paragraphs. His strength lies within his enormous business savvy and incredible insight regarding new products. He's discovered the iPhone killer. The device that will "interrupt product cycle".

I'm sure Steve Jobs is calling an emergency meeting in Cupertino first thing tomorrow morning to discuss future plans for the iPhone now that the 1GB Storm has been introduced.

You stole my thunder! I'm not gonna take business advice from someone who can't hit a flappin' return key.

A lot of people have a BlackBerry because it was the best smartphone around at the time. The Storm will be the first one to get close to what the iPhone is. But the whole game boils down to software. The App Store has turned the iPhone from an iPod+phone+Internet device into a "show me your best moves!" device.

Software is what hindered the old Macs. The Internet changed a lot of that since you didn't need a local store to sell Mac-based software. Mac OS is HUGE reason that I like this MBP so much, especially when I try to figure something out in Windows. If the Storm has crappy software, it won't matter how pretty or shiny it is. Kudos to RiM for competing, but I just want them there to push Apple to make the iPhone better.

 

[Ish]

I agree. It doesn't really matter how much more you can get on another phone. It won't have OSX, and that is what makes the iPhone special. My phone can connect to the internet but it's awful so I don't bother. Having said that, there's nothing like competition for keeping companies on their toes and making sure their products keep up with their rivals and I'm sure future iPhones will be better for it. Still waiting to finish my contract so I can change to an iPhone!

 

[amammad]

As the Brits would say, that page was famously horrible.

Would we?!?

 

[garybUK]

You have to remember the iPhone is only in it's second iteration and it will evolve into a more complete product (I hope). I hate the lack of basic features the iPhone has but i'm sure they will come in the future which will offer a more complete product.

The trouble Apple has it's no where near big enough in business to compete with the likes of RIM, Nokia or Microsoft (WinMO/Exchange)

Companies like RIM so this phone has a user base automatically that would buy this product

On the point of Status; with the iPhone becoming available on Payg tariffs and available all over the globe, it looses that 'status' symbol effect that Apple is famous for. What will happen when the glitter effect goes? Competition is always good but Apple need to take note of these alternatives NOW. Apple also need to listen to the fact that the US market needs are not the same as other places (Europe / Japan to name just two)

 

[heya]

Looks like they've fixed it now..

 

[hazza.jockel]

Third, Apple is not done innovating. Not by a long shot. They have held back on some sorely needed features like cut and paste, and it wouldn't surprise me if Jobs is ready to drop some new bombs when he needs them. I'm not even sure he needs them here. But if the Storm prompts Apple to step it up a notch, we all benefit. I'm very happy to see the Storm enter the market.

Maybe storm entering the market will be the best thing for iPhone users because it (according to the OP) will cause the iPhone to compete by giving it more functions. So I agree, I am happy to see the Storm enter the market.

On the point of Status; with the iPhone becoming available on Payg tariffs and available all over the globe, it looses that 'status' symbol effect that Apple is famous for. What will happen when the glitter effect goes? Competition is always good but Apple need to take note of these alternatives NOW. Apple also need to listen to the fact that the US market needs are not the same as other places (Europe / Japan to name just two)

Ipod were originally like the iPhone was. A high class symbol. Today they are sold world wide and extremely common and have lost the status symbol you may be refering to. But they still dominate the market. So maybe the iPhone losing its status won't necessary mean a downfall in sales. Eventually the iPhone and future iPhones might dominate the mobile market just as the iPod dominates the MP3 market. People won't ask what mobile you have but what iPhone you have. Storm will just become like Sony or Sandisk are in the MP3 market: a very small majority.

 

[Stebus]

I have a Sony camera with a pressure based touch screen and it's god awful compared to the iPhone's screen. I'm sure if I'd used it first I wouldn't mind as much, however now I hold the iPhone in even higher regard.

I'd hope RIM can make a good screen although Apple patented pretty much anything related to a touch screen so it'll be pretty hard. As has already been stated, competition is good but I honestly don't see anything being an iPhone killer unless they actually do some innovating themselves and make a completely new device. Hologram phone anyone?

 

[scaredpoet]

Would we?!?

Yes. You might even say Vodaphone nearly got themselves into a spot of bother.

Now that the new screenshots are up... Yuck. I REALLY don't like that interface.