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

[McGiord]

I have been frequently traveling to Mexico and Europe and even with my unlocked old EDGE iPhone the local data services are way too expensive in comparison to what I paid in the USA.
Therefore there is no need to pay for data usage in another country unless you really save money on it.
I do use wi-fi in the company where I worked and in the hotels where I stayed.

I do love my iPhone and so far I think I will never replaced it with a blackberry.

Anyways the business crackberries are always used to pay those exotic data roaming charges, and if they don't care nowadays they will not in the future.

 

[Pared]

Yeah, it has nothing to do with the fact that wifi is one of the best forms of internet connectivity on a mobile device.

 

[MacFly123]

Well I am a bit confused because all the initial reports of the Storm were very negative about the push touch screen but now its like all the critics love it.

I am an iPhone 3G owner and Mac fan, but I am interested to try the Storm touch screen out and see what it is like.

BlackBerry makes good phones I think, but they can not match Apple with the iPod integration, media content, sleek cool status factor, and seamless integration and syncing of all media and data with iTunes.

Although it seems like there is a new "iPhone Killer" every month now I think I can see the Storm doing well and since it will be launched in November which is mid product cycle for the 3G my bet is Apple will finally release a software update that includes some substantial features like: copy & paste, video capture, global landscape keyboard, updated camera app, etc.

This is only if the Storm proves to be a threat. CrackBerry addicts love their physical keyboards, so it is like the Storm is in limbo between the BlackBerry business users that very well might want to stay with the physical keyboards, and the status media people that will probably want an iPhone instead. If it is not too much of a threat then I think Apple will hold off on these things in the software until the next hardware revision next year.

Lets hope the competition forces Apple to deliver on these features sooner rather than later! It will be interesting to see what happens. But people should stop denying that although Apple didn't invent the phone or smart phone etc. they sure started the TRUE mobile computing revolution. You'd have to be in serious denial to not admit that. They started off on the road 5 years ahead of any phone and are now a year down that road, so it is going to be very tough for someone to make not just a phone but an ecosystem and phone that rivals the iPhone & iTunes!

 

[kdarling]

I believe that Verizon's unlimited international data plan for their current global (CDMA/GSM) phones is only about $65 a month.

Interesting user story here

 

[Bryan Bowler]

Very well said MacFly123. I think you hit the nail on the head!

 

[redman042]

As an aside, I have not ever, nor am I likely to any time soon, see queues round blocks in every major city to get a BlackBerry, no matter how good it is. I think that's quite significant in this debate.

That's it in a nutshell my friend.

 

[NeoMayhem]

I used a blackberry recently, what a piece of crap.

-The web browser sucks
-The OS sucks, its almost as bad as windows mobile
-The software selection didn't look very promising
-The media player was not very good
-The battery life was worse then the iphone
-No touch screen

I know the the iPhone has its problems and is missing features like copy and paste, but Blackberry is going to need a whole new OS and hardware design to compete with apple this time.

 

[SFStateStudent]

OP, You want an MBA to respond to your post...

+1 ^^^ Thanks Marky_Mark; you dun good...

When will they release this "hope to be the iPhone killer" (RiM's words), if they delay it anymore most of us iPhone owners will be eligible to port our numbers over to Verizon...

 

[liquidtrend]

im not in the cellphone game.
nor do i own stock in apple or RIM, so the hit or miss iphone killer doesnt matter to me.

i am curious however on how RIM's going to revolutionize their existing UI.
will they still have 30+ icons to touch your way through?

this is a nice looking device though.
out of all the "killers" RIM and Nokia models are the ones looking exciting.

i agree to the fact that the iphone needs more competition.
what companies keep passing up on is the simplicity factor.
id like to see something revolutionize the industry again.
apple or not.

 

[gotzero]

I am about to return to blackberry if the call dropping issue is not addressed and fast in the iphone.

Since 2.1, I drop multiple calls every day, which is simply not okay. I am waiting impatiently for someone to acknowledge that there is a hardware error in my phone. If the bold comes out and I have not seen any progress, I am switching at least temporarily.

If the touch screen blackberry works well and is available on a network in the states besides Verizon, I will consider it too.

My blackberrys have all been amazing devices, and leave the iphone in the dust in categories like battery life, e-mail, ruggedness, and reliability.

RIM is getting knocked off of their pedestal, but I would certainly not call their demise.

I think the blackberrys prior to the Pearl, Curve, and 8800 were for business users only. My 8700 had no "fun" items included, but the 8800 I received later was full of them.

In my daily social interactions, I see significantly more Curves and Pearls for personal phones than the iphone, and for work phones it is no contest. I have yet to meet someone with a corporate iphone. The only thing I do not see are the competing non-blackberry offerings from Sprint and Verizon in the states, which I think are dismissed as a joke once people get blackberrys from work.

 

[Agathon]

OS is only one part of the equation unfortunately, and Apple needs a kick in the butt anyways (i'm looking at you, random Safari crashes )

Nope. It's pretty much the whole deal. These are not phones, but ultra mobile computers. A Blackberry is essentially portable email with a phone. The rest of it is pretty poor.

Android and Mobile OS X are desktop class OSes that are platforms. Producing a smart phone with a touch screen is not skating to where the puck is going to be. The software and openness and interoperability with future cloud services is everything.

RIM has been living off the fact that it is the standard for corporate mobile push email. Unfortunately, that's not a very "sticky" market. Whereas companies that use Windows are stuck with legacy software on a massive scale, email is just email and you'll still be able to read it no matter whose pipes it gets sent through.

 

[Mad Mac Maniac]

I agree with several of the people above.

Yes the storm is an impressive phone.

Yes blackberry has an impressive user base.

Yes the storm will do well.

But will it steal iphone users/potential iphone users away? No.

I don't see anything worth switching over. A lot of people, and i mean a LOT, switched carriers to at&t JUST for the iphone! even canceling their current contract. Do I see that happening for the storm? Not even close.

By this point most people who are supremely impressed with the touchscreens have already attached themselves to one. The only people the storm will pick up are people already on verizon who liked the iphone, but weren't about to switch carriers over it. Verizon will not pick up (many) additional customers. That's the difference.

You know what Apple could do if they really wanted to combat the storm? Within the next month they should announce a verizon contract for the iphone. I know they are supposedly locked in with at&t, but just imagine if this was announced (as perhaps a january release date) sometime before the storm was released. The storm stomper! haha

 

[lsvtecjohn3]

Since 2.1, I drop multiple calls every day, which is simply not okay. I am waiting impatiently for someone to acknowledge that there is a hardware error in my phone. If the bold comes out and I have not seen any progress, I am switching at least temporarily.

It's not a iPhone hardware problem it's at&t 3g. All at&t 3g phones have this problem... And you might want to do some research on the BB bold because from what I was reading the people in Canada that have the Bold on Rodgers were having the same problems with drop calls.

 

[kdarling]

It's not a iPhone hardware problem it's at&t 3g. All at&t 3g phones have this problem... And you might want to do some research on the BB bold because from what I was reading the people in Canada that have the Bold on Rodgers were having the same problems with drop calls.

Got a cite for us?

I have not read that people in Canada were actually having problems with the Bold.

There were preliminary worries that the Bold might have 3G problems in Canada, but apparently it's doing okay, thus proving that the 3G problems were limited to ATT and the iPhone power bug.

Thanks!

 

[Evev12]

Sounds like it's off to a good start. It's def. got my full attention!

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/08/blackberry-storm-9500-hands-on/

 

[kayno]

Re do

 

[kayno]

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.

Throws panties on the stage.. but seriously.. thats true talk.. I love it when people hit the nail on the head.. Blackberry might only be a threat in the business world.. with the "current blackberry users" and not the general public and other business people like my self who love the iPhone.

I downloaded the emulator and played with it.. they did a good job but it won't stir me away from my one true, first, original, innovative and non conformist love "iPhonia"

 

[Big-TDI-Guy]

OMG! It's got Tiger on it! Who's gonna call Apple legal dept?

 

[Adjei]

Got a cite for us?

I have not read that people in Canada were actually having problems with the Bold.

There were preliminary worries that the Bold might have 3G problems in Canada, but apparently it's doing okay, thus proving that the 3G problems were limited to ATT and the iPhone power bug.

Thanks!

Doing okay, why don't you go and read some of the blackberry forums and all the complains about it, reading this forums you would think only the iphone has issues while every other phone is flawless, whatever that means.

 

[Turmoil]

After reading about the RIM Storm and analyzing factors even as an iPhone owner and mac user


Troll alert!

 

[Demosthenes427]

OMG please can I have someone who goes to a business school or an MBA back me up. A, you cannot compare the storm to the zune first of all zune was microsofts first attempt at an mp3 RIM has already been in smart phone for a long with an already well established consumer base, corporates that were not impressed with the iphone will be in it for the storm. Also Blackberry is a brand name for phones if a kid doesn't have an iphone he wants a blackberry. RIM has already gone through the growing pains that apple right now is going through with cell phones and that will be a great advantage for RIM.

[snip]

2) The iPhone is not an enterprise device. RIM is a company that always specialized in the enterprise market. They've always had an advantage, and it did nothing for them when the iPhone came out.

3) Enterprise customers didn't like it, so they didn't buy the iPhone to begin with. Chances are they went back to their old Blackberries when they returned the iPhone because it didn't do what they wanted it to do. There's absolutely no reason for an enterprise consumer to buy the Blackberry Storm when their old Blackberry does the same exact thing as the Storm. Enterprise consumers use their Blackberries for email. They don't putz around surfing the Internet with their Blackberries, they don't play video games on their Blackberries, they don't take pictures with their Blackberries. It's a communication device to facilitate business wherever the enterprise consumer may be. More frills to a device already perfect for enterprise won't make consumers buy it.

4) As for it being a "brand name," Blackberry is just as much a brand name as Motorola. Or Nokia. Or Pantech, Samsung, LG...there's a load of brand names that are just as popular, if not more, than the Apple iPhone and RIM's Blackberry. If a kid doesn't want the iPhone, he doesn't give a rat's ass about the frills of the Blackberry. The iPhone has much more appeal to a kid than an enterprise customer. Therefore, the kid will want an iPhone because it plays games and plays loads of music and does it all flawlessly, something Blackberries typically cannot do. If a kid doesn't want the iPhone, chances are he won't want a Blackberry. I look around my campus in college and I see kids either with iPhones or a simple clamshell-style phone from Motorola and LG and Samsung. They all do the same damn thing, just with more frills. No kid wants a Blackberry because it's main focus is the enterprise consumer and caters exactly to what the enterprise consumer wants. The iPhone caters to the common consumer who just wants something fun to play around with.

See? And I did all that without going to a business school or having an MBA.

Oh, and by the way: the Zune was born to be a failure because everyone loved the iPod too damn much.

 

[kdarling]

... various assertions about RIM being for business only...

Last I read, over half of RIM's sales were now to more normal consumers... that is, people who said they didn't buy it just for business purposes. Yeah, I was surprised too.

Doing okay, why don't you go and read some of the blackberry forums and all the complains about it, reading this forums you would think only the iphone has issues while every other phone is flawless, whatever that means.

I read many other forums and do a lot more research before posting than most. The Bold has had some build issues, but as I said, I haven't seen any rampant 3G issues in Canada, as some predicted. This seems to indicate that the 3G problems were with ATT, not the Bold itself.

 

[Eso]

Tactile touchscreen on BB Storm

I get the impression that people think that the tactile response on the BlackBerry Storm will make typing on the virtual keyboard just like typing on a physical keyboard thus giving the user the best of both worlds. I fail to see how that will do anything but make typing on the touchscreen require more work. From what I understand, they entire screen will depress and click - but what good is that for virtual keyboard buttons? The major benefit of a physical keyboard is that you can feel the individual buttons to distinguish one key from another so you know you are hitting the 'k' and not the 'i'. Tactile response just confirms you have pressed the key, but on a touchscreen you can tell you have pressed a virtual key if you have, well, touched the screen.

On the other hand, I see how much functionality that can have by distinguishing touches from presses (or "mouse-clicks"). Think about how easy Copy/Paste would be to implement if the iPhone had that. Touch and drag to use the magnifier. When you are ready to begin text selection - click - and voila, start dragging around the magnifier and it selects the text. Click again to finish. Not too bad.

 

[Evev12]

Sounding even better - http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/patterson/28399

This is going to be huge. I'll finally be able to use my phone as a modem, listen to my music through my bluetooth headset, watch mobile TV (maybe even my Slingbox), download apps over 3G (with the proper initial free demo), AND I'll be able to use it abroad without being raped by AT&T. I finally feel the handcuffs comming off - Stevie Boy's losing his grip alright. Bye bye Nazi regime . It's a shame too, Apple's got one amazing peice of hardware on their hands - it's too bad their greed is starting to overpower their product.

 

[mcdj]

I get the impression that people think that the tactile response on the BlackBerry Storm ...

I think you meant to post this in the Blackberry forum. Oh wait...