November 19th, 2008
Is the BlackBerry Storm too 'consumer'?
Enterprise customers getting hold of the long-awaited BlackBerry Storm are discovering that the smartphone isn’t quite as “enterprise” as they might have hoped.
Is the BlackBerry Storm too “consumer” for business customers’ tastes?
According to a report in The Register (UK), the issue is with the way that RIM segments its customers: those who use Blackberry Internet Solution, and those who use Blackberry Enterprise Solution. The Storm comes with Blackberry Internet Solution support, but Enterprise integration will cost an additional £16, or about $24, per month (in the U.K.).
As many of you can deduce, the Storm is positioned to straddle the line between iPhone-favoring consumers and traditional BlackBerry-favoring business customers.
The Internet Solution integrates with POP3 email accounts as well as web-based email, but anyone wanting to use Exchange, Domino, Groupwise, etc. must pay for an Enterprise Solution. The same applies to users wanting to use other enterprise applications based on the BlackBerry platform.
And, according to Vodaphone, the service isn’t even finished:
“The BES service books for the Storm are not quite ready … chances are it still wouldn’t work. Obviously we’d rather not take the chance just yet until we know everything is working 100 per cent on that side.”
I’ve contacted a RIM representative to see what the situation is in North America, and I’ll update this post when I hear back.
What do you think? Is this a major hurdle to BlackBerry Storm adoption by businesses? Tell us in TalkBack.
Andrew J. Nusca is an associate editor for ZDNet and SmartPlanet.
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