Storm of protest at latest BlackBerry

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone.

Advertisement

Asher Moses
December 5, 2008 - 3:16PM

Page 1 of 2 | Single page

It was supposed to give BlackBerry the brand cachet of Apple's iPhone but instead the launch of the BlackBerry Storm has escalated into a disaster, with critics and users claiming the device is the company's worst effort yet.
The Storm, which went on sale exclusively through Vodafone stores today, has been on the US market for two weeks and BlackBerry loyalists are dismayed by an apparent plethora of bugs, slow speeds and poor usability.
On gadget forums such as BlackBerry's own support boards, the biggest issue seems to be the keyboard - or lack thereof. Unlike every other BlackBerry to date, there is no tactile keyboard on the Storm, just a large touchscreen and a virtual keyboard.
While some users have praised the touchscreen for being "clickable" - allowing it to offer tactile feedback - many say the keys on the virtual keyboard are too close together and the clickable screen is cumbersome for typing long messages. This is a deal breaker for a device that is designed primarily for email.
"I think dumping an unfinished, buggy device on people was pretty shameful and shoddy," wrote one user on CrackBerry.com in a view consistent with other accounts.
Vodafone has heavily subsidised the handset cost of the Storm, offering it for $0 upfront on a $69-a-month plan that includes unlimited email and internet usage.
Both Vodafone and the US carrier Verizon say the Storm is their fastest selling handset yet. Vodafone said last month it was forced to push back the Australian launch from Monday due to unprecedented demand.
"In the UK, we've been selling a Vodafone Storm every 13 seconds, and on the basis of demand from our pre-registration process, which is well into the thousands, we're expecting demand to be just as hot here in Australia," Vodafone Australia CEO Russell Hewitt said at the time.
But the honeymoon period has now worn off after overseas users had the chance to play with the Storm for a few weeks.
"Having used many other [BlackBerry maker] Research In Motion devices, I can't remember a device being released with so many bugs," Allen Nogee, In-Stat Research's principal analyst for wireless technology, told MSNBC.
"There is no doubt that this device was rushed to market to make the Christmas selling season."