As the battle for the smartphone market heats up, comparisons abound between Research In Motion’s BlackBerry Storm, released in November, and Apple’s iPhone.
For starters, both devices boast a touchscreen, forgoing the buttons found on more conventional phones. But the more important comparison, from the bottom-line perspective, lies in which device carries a fatter margin.
Verizon Wireless and Research In Motion Ltd. have high hopes for the BlackBerry Storm, which they spent nearly two years developing as their big response to Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
But despite a marketing campaign that cost more than $100 million, the smartphone has gotten off to a bumpy start.
U.K. paper The Guardian this morning reports that Orange, the mobile phone operator owned by France Telecom, is considering yanking Research in Motion’s BlackBerry Bold from its handset lineup because of what the paper calls persistent software errors.
Is it a coincidence that Apple’s iPhone 2.2 update was released on the same day the BlackBerry Storm hit stores with a touchscreen, 3G connectivity, and enterprise-friendly functionality that rivals anything Apple has on the market? I think not.
Verizon’s debut of the Storm, the first touchscreen BlackBerry, caused quite a ruckus in some places–in Manhattan, hundreds of people waited outside Verizon Wireless stores. When one store ran out of phones an hour after opening, police were called to restore order among rowdy customers.
Here is the latest comic from our Joy of Tech friends at Geek Culture, Nitrozac and Snaggy. Joy of Tech appears twice weekly in the Voices section of this site. (Click on the image to see a bigger version.)
Verizon Wireless and Research in Motion should be thanking one particular customer service rep for stopping at least one customer–me–from defecting to AT&T and the iPhone this week. I had called in to find out about altering my existing family plan and porting my phone over to AT&T when she asked me if I’d heard of the Blackberry Storm.
Having followed activity in the BlackBerry ecosystem over the past few weeks, I have come to the conclusion that BlackBerry Storm should be called BlackBerry Stealth. Why? With little media coverage, its forthcoming launch is the sleeper play in the smartphone market. …
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