The BlackBerry Storm is no iPhone
Tech journalists and gadget lovers across the globe are rejoicing over the announcement of the BlackBerry Storm, RIM's first touchscreen cell phone to compete with the iPhone.
Those who can't wait to get their hands on BlackBerry's latest call it a marvel and its keyboard functionality, which makes you press down on the screen to register a "touch", is something worth drooling over.
OK, I guess I can concede that the Storm is really neat and the touchscreen idea is fantastic. But I still don't see how the BlackBerry Storm will be able to compete on any level with the iPhone 3G.
It's not that I have a problem with RIM--I think the BlackBerry Curve is a fantastic device--or that I'm not impressed by the Storm. I just don't see how BlackBerry's first touchscreen device can compete against the iPhone if the vast majority of "mainstream" users simply don't know anything about it.
Go ahead and ask the person next to you at the office about the BlackBerry Storm. Chances are, if they aren't in to technology like you and I, they wouldn't have the slightest clue about it even though it's making headlines all over the tech world today.
Then ask those people what they knew about the iPhone the day after it was announced. I'll bet you'll find that they knew much more about the iPhone than the BlackBerry Storm.
Do you see what I'm getting at here? No matter how important a new device in the cell phone business may be to the growth of the industry, it will never be able to outshine the iPhone.
And that's where RIM finds itself now. The BlackBerry Storm is an incredibly appealing device in its own right and slowly, but surely, the device will make its way into the mainstream as reports break out about its functionality and usability, but until that happens, it's a mystery to the average user.
In contrast, the iPhone wasn't a mystery to anyone once Steve Jobs showed it off at his Stevenote. The mainstream media was in attendance to see what he had up its sleeve and reported on every last detail. On launch day, every single major media outlet was chomping at the bit to cover the cell phone industry's latest and greatest offering.
Will that happen with the BlackBerry Storm? Uh, no. Instead, the Storm will be covered by a select few media outlets in the middle of a newscast and quickly forgotten about after that. There won't be local stations covering lines around the Verizon store and even when it's released, the average person probably won't know about it.
So how does RIM fight the Apple onslaught and the mainstream media that only cares about Steve Jobs?
It can't.
All RIM can do is keep releasing compelling products that make businesses and the tech-savvy crowd take notice and wait for that knowledge to trickle-down into the mainstream. Sure, it won't be easy, but it needs to be done.
Apple has help with every product it releases, but RIM doesn't have that luxury. So no matter how great the Storm will be, it doesn't matter.
It's sad, but true.
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Don Reisinger is a technology columnist who has written about everything from HDTVs to computers to Flowbee Haircut Systems. Don is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and posts at The Digital Home. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
One of the biggest complaints I've heard from IT folks that have the iPhone is the learning curve to typing on a screen - it's just not very intuitive to them. The push-screen concept could be very interesting.
What this really is, is a screen that doesn't actually give you tactile feedback about where individual buttons are, you just have to "push to click" that's the feedback, you get a "click" when you've successfully pushed down on the screen for input anywhere on the screen. How this improves the experience I have no idea. With the iPhone there's no need to push hard enough for a click. I can push a button and I can _hear_ a click if I wish to hear one in the settings, but the notion that I have to push hard enough for all input to get that click feel seems less like an actual useful feature and more like a gimmick. As one hands-on reviewer said:
"No matter how many times your fingers dance on the screen like you've been trained on every other touchscreen, nothing will happen. At least, not until you push the screen all the way down and you feel a click. Yes, the screen is a giant button, one you have to punch for basically every action, even every letter you type, completely breaking the touchscreen paradigm."
That's right folks, the screen is one giant button and for EVERY KEYSTROKE, you have to depress the screen until you feel the click, so no more iPhone-like rapid-typing, this sounds like hunt-and-peck hell to me. The above reviewer said he could see where some might actually get used to it but for many, "I could definitely see people loathing it."
What other smartphone/touchscreen makers don't get is that it isn't the touch feature that makes the iPhone it's the whole package, how all the parts work and interact with each other. I've tried the other touchphones in stores and they just do not get it. They slap a touchscreen onto their software package and call it an iPhone-Killer, so far the only murder goin' on has been using these copy-cats. That's why up until the iPhone almost NO ONE used the browser features in their smartphones, now, the iPhone leads all other smarthphones in browser use by double digits. It's the whole package, not the features.
JoeL
Sales.
For some reason the big tech bloggers love to ignore this when talking about 'competition' with the iPhone.
Since the introduction of the iPhone, other smart mobile OSes have not seen a dip in sales. In fact they've seen an INCREASE, which could be a case of rising tide of consumer awareness floating all boats.
For example, Symbian (the global smart OS leader) has seen a 15% increase in sales since the iPhone launched.
For Windows Mobile, HTC alone sold over 11 million devices in 2007, and as of end of August have reported a 33% increase over 2007. Estimated user base of WM is somewhere north of 35 million and growing.
Even though Blackberry has a range of phone designs, as opposed to Apple's one design, as an operating system it far outsells the iPhone. In the first half of 2008 alone, BB moved about 6.5 million. Compared to the total iPhone sales of an estimated 7 million from the launch of the original until August of 2008, I'd say that it would be refreshing to more mainstream discussion on sites like CNet.
Obviously iPhone wins in hype, but I'm noticing on the subways and streets of my hometown an increasing number of people not dressed in 'suits' using smartphones, and they're not all iPhones. A lot of BB Pearls and HTC Touches and Diamonds.
This isn't to take away from the iPhone. It's introduction has made a lot of people who weren't interested before suddenly start looking around. What they're discovering is that unlike the uber-niche MP3 player market before the iPod launched, there's a robust and mature pre-existing smart phone market out there, and the two major contributions that Apple has brought to the table are the nice high res screen, and much cheaper data plans.
GARBAGE .....one of them we already returned back,call drops,phone freezing,hard to type on key board.
takes for ever to reboot..
2nd one i kept for now
shuts off by itself
reboot by itself
i click to type and it goes often into camera mode by itself......................
waiste of money and over rated
i can not see myself keeping this junk,but i paid $ 159.00 plus another 50.00 off,i may try it for while longer
if not.............i will go for the Iphone
i can not believe they put it out on the market with so many problems
"Do you know what is the blackberry storm?"
The answer revolves around: "No, A new type of blackberry?"
It is true that people don't know about the storm in particular. The same can be said about the android. But people sure do know about blackberry. That's enough to generate interest and curiousity. It is even more true that the average people wouldn't care much about the smartphone in general. But think about this, people often use blackberry @ work, and use iphone (or another more consumer friendly ) device @ 'home'. Now the storm can do both.
What makes you think that verizon won't bump some heavy PR behind this? Verizon, in the recent months, have been losing badly against AT&T. Well, this device, is their opportunity to fight back. To do nothing would be completely stupid.
I dont know where your getting your info, but Verizon is doing better then AT&T.
Get your info fright before you post something.
Verizon has the best rating and lowest number of people who switch off there network.
AT&T has the worse ratings.
one i returned
2nd one one the way
what a faluire.garbage,freezes ofter,shuts off by its self,no good for tayping typing
sometimes screen stuck between applications
waiste of money
i am disappointed
Your ignorance is truly amusing. You talk like you know anything about the storm? Have you used it? Have you reviewed it? How can you so easily dismiss it as junk?
The other comments you made about this story are equally pathetic.
You say "Does not give any ability to read any kind of documents. No PDF, No Word, No Excel. Nothing but a big ZERO". Please read this "http://gizmodo.com/5060378/blackberry-storm-first-hands-on"
You say "What exactly is Blackberry's reliability. We saw what happened when their servers went out. So it is only as reliable as their server. Plus corporations have to pay through their nose to host the Blackberry servers."
A network device is only reliable as the network and the server...woah...slow down Cooper. That hit me like on the ankle. Server suffer outage just like any server. If you want to discuss single point of failure, that will make you look better.
And about multiple network, how about "Verizon's CDMA/EvDO and the GSM/EDGE/UMTS/HSDPA technology for Vodafone in Europe and elsewhere"
It's funny because in your comments from other stories, you tell people to do their research and not do paper thin comparison...well do the same.
Nimrod
http://www.PuroCleanCPR.com/
For instance, we know that smartphones released by, say, RIM or Nokia or HTC will come out with release to market firmware which will, as all smartphones do, require a few tweaks. These will subsequently delivered by firmware and the phone you have two to three months after purchase will be better than the one you bought. As such, we understand that some of the points made in initial reviews will be resolved.
The trouble is that the iPhone has exactly the same practical issues with firmware as its competitors yet we are given a blow by blow hyped up account of the release of what are little more than bug fixes and told that we should hope for jam tomorrow when it will be improved. As such the continuing development of the iPhone is kept in the public eye in a way that other smartphones aren't. The fair thing to do would, of course, be to re-review the whole range of smartphones, say, six months down the line but, unfortunately, that doesn't generate clicks so we are left with initial impressions on the vast majority of products with the notable exception of Apple's offering.
Sad but true.
My biggest frustration with typing on the iphone is having to look down at the buttons instead of typing by feel. I make a few more mistakes with the iphone keyboard, but the auto correct usually fixes that. (Which prompts the question of whether or not the Storm's auto correct will work as well.) I think it will still have the same problem as with the iphone. Even though you may have to use more pressure and will have the click, you still can't type by feel.
Again, it's a great design, but I don't think it solves the problem at all.
The success of the iPhone is also difficult to battle due to the astounding popularity of the iPod. The Storm can't touch the the iPod cool factor that the iPhone has. Also, I have an iPod Touch and the keyboard thing is great. Takes about a day to get used to - not a bad learning curve. I can't wait to see how the Storm's keyboard compares.
If one could plug in an exernal USB hub, keyboard, monitor, printer, HD, etc. you'd finally have a real winner.
I'm a consumer who wants the best products. I run an Apple MacBook Pro. If the keyboard on the BB Storm is better than the iPhone keyboard, then I'd have to personally lean toward the BB Storm as my next phone. It's not like I can't do many of the basic functions on the Storm anyway that the iPhone offers.
While that's partially true, the new Storm still doesn't provide Cisco VPN client access without expensive hardware, and you still can't view Microsoft Word, Excel, and PDF documents natively either. The iPhone does all of them.
If BlackBerry is supposed to cater to the business crowd, it must be quite a niche component of that business crowd that doesn't require secure access to their Intranets and only reads and distributes documents in text format. Too bad RIM is holding back mobile innovation to the rest who don't have access to the iPhone for various reasons.
Based on function that the business crowd desires, the Storm is still no iPhone. It's not the hype.
Secondly, you can view and edit MS Word and PowerPoint documents natively with BlackBerry OS 4.5 or higher with Docs to go which is bundled. Also the BlackBerry can view all those document types now without Docs to Go.
Thirdly, how has RIM not tried to meet user requests by adding GPS, Bluetooth, camera, voice notes, sync of multiple mail accounts
But in habit of the cnet community on picking on your game console articles, do you think RIM should release a game console?
What exactly is Blackberry's reliability. We saw what happened when their servers went out. So it is only as reliable as their server. Plus corporations have to pay through their nose to host the Blackberry servers.
Exactly how is it going to be available in more networks?
The Blackberry is an overhyped piece of plastic garbage carried by corporate morons.
It's better to type nothing and be thought a fool than type something and confirm it.
Just a thought for you.
First do your research... For a company or corporation like you stated to have a server cost per 100 users about $325 plus all the maintenance costs to keep the servers running and all the IT employees you have to hire including salary, med/dental tax fees etc....
Blackberry Enterprise costs for the same scenario is about half and you don't have to have nearly all the IT weenies so costs are quite a bit lower... oh and corporations don't host the blackberry servers... blackberry does...
available in more networks cause it's quad band for global support... so over 120 countries....
If blackberry is an overhyped piece of plastic garbage... what is the I-Phone... coporate morons??? ouch a little bitter?
As for the phone, I would definitely be interested in checking it out and possibly buying one if it is reasonably priced. I think the ClickThrough is genius! I wonder if the phone has multi-touch capabilities like the iPhone though ..
For other carriers, you can use LifeInPocket Navigation for free while Verizon user can only use Verizon?s own VZ Navigation which is not as goods as LifeInPocket.
Who would want to buy a phone that you have to pay big money for apps and services?.
Most of my friends are using The popular LifeInPocket no matter they are with AT&T, Nextel, Sprint etc (but not Verizon). LifeInPocket is the best mobile phone GPS navigation I ever used. It's free, easy to download and user friendly.
The address sync capability (with Yahoo, GMAIL, Outlook etc) allow you to use those addresses for navigation by single click.
I use their location messaging to replace text messaging which also saved a lot of money.
Who would what to buy this expensive phone, pay expensive monthly plan and being restricted by Verizon for everything thus they can squeeze more money from you!
Nice phone, greed carrier, it?s not going to work!
For RIM , the Storm is needed to protect her user-base. The Storm looks like a better copycat with some original idea from RIM. Thumb up to RIM. But I'll wait for my Verizon contract to expire to get an iPhone.
So really tired of all the MAC Elitest.....
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by BerryClick
October 8, 2008 11:09 AM PDT
- I know many people think that VZW is the evil empire, but in my area (NYC 'burbs) its by far the best game in town. I use a Blackberry today and I CAN NOT use an iPhone because I will not put up with shoddy service. In any selection process for a new phone, I would think that strength of network should be a driving force.
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by MetalWych
December 4, 2008 6:15 PM PST
- You are right, and BB is going live with their App Store next year. Verizon is so much faster than AT&T. The Storm is great!
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See all 130 Comments >>I don't see how the Storm is any less anything than the iphone from a features perspective (possible exception being the app store) and I certainly think that the VZW network gives the Storm some instant user credibility. I follow Blackberry Storm developments at BerryClick. com