November 18th, 2008
Sneak Peek: BlackBerry Storm
Apple ignited a firestorm of competition when it announced the iPhone in January of 2007. Since then the touchscreen smartphone segment has been ablaze with competition from all the major OEMs and carriers, including Nokia (Tube), RIM (Thunder/Storm), LG (Voyager), Samsung (Instinct), Sony Ericsson (X1), HTC (G1) and yes, even Motorola (Krave ZN4).
The term “iPhone killer” has become so overused that it has almost become a liability for handset manufacturers, using it is akin to admitting defeat to the almighty and ever-powerful iPhone. We all need to take a step back and realize that they’re just touchscreen phones and that there will be many more like them to come in the future. (Insert tool analogy here). Why do we get so wound up and emotional over the shiny, wireless devices anyway?
That said, one of the most highly-anticipated of the lot is the upcoming Blackberry Storm (a.k.a. 9530) from RIM and Verizon Wireless. It’s going to be one of the most closely observed iPhone competitors because: a) Verizon’s network is the best, hands down and, b) it’s the first touchscreen Blackberry, evar.
I spent a couple of hours yesterday with the Storm and created a few short videos of some of its features and the overall user interface.
I tested copy and paste, YouTube, the media application, 3.2MP camera (with flash, auto focus, image stabilization and video recording), rear panel with removable battery, memory card and SIM slots, hardware buttons, accelerometer, hybrid capacitive/resistive touchscreen, Web browser and the enhanced visual voicemail with archive and forward functionality.
It was far from a complete review, but rather a little peek under the Kimono of what may be the hottest gadget of the year.
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Jason D. O'Grady is the editor of PowerPage.org, which has been publishing daily mobile technology news since December 1995. For disclosures on Jason's industry affiliations, click here or to view Jason's full profile click here.
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