I finally got my Blackberry Storm yesterday and I am happily enjoying it. I ordered Friday morning at 6:30AM and got it on Monday from FedEx. I heard that store stocks would be low, so I went for the sure thing and ordered it as soon as I could online. I have heard that it is completely sold out and the current next delivery date for orders is 12/5. So, I got very lucky.
There are a few software quirks, but overall the phone is an amazing piece of work. It is very solidly built and has a nice finish to it. The typing feels great to me. I love the combination of touch and pressing; it just feels more naturally to have the feedback than simply mashing away on a screen. It is missing the feel of keys so you can’t blindly type like you can on a regular Blackberry, but I am sure with some practice I will get a general feel as to where the keys are and typing should be even more easy. I’d love to take some pictures of it, but the only camera I have is the phone and it can’t really take pictures of itself. However, there are plenty of pictures all over the web and it is just like them. I am very happy I waited for this phone and I disagree with a lot of the negative reviews. My first Blackberry experience is living up to be a great one.
The picture speaks for itself. We have finally got confirmation straight from the source that the Blackberry Storm will arrive next Friday! I hope they have plenty in stock that day so that I am able to get one without waiting too long in line. Next Friday can’t come soon enough. I think this should do it for Blackberry Storm posts since this whole week has been about them – at least until next Friday!
Well, it looks like the Blackberry Storm will be coming a week later than I had previously posted. I held back on posting about this just to see if any conflicting information would arise and it looks like nothing else has come up, so it must be accurate. Here is the flier scooped by BGR:
So, you can see on the 24th all stores will be open an hour earlier for the anticipated demand. I called Verizon tonight and the rep I spoke with could not confirm any launch date, but said it would be around $200 to $229 and have a $70 MIR. So, we’ll see if that happens because it would be a great price combined with my New Every 2 discount. So back to waiting just a little bit longer.
Larry Dignan over at ZDNet seems to think that the Blackberry Storm is going to finally show its face next Monday, November 17th. However, this news is just coming from a call center rep so the information may or may not be entirely accurate. They did say that the training for the Storm was complete and demand is ever increasing with current customers looking to upgrade to the latest and hottest phone that Verizon will have. The Vodafone Storm release date is set for this Friday, so it may not be too unreasonable to expect it by next Monday. I certainly hope it is true because I am ready for this phone to finally come out.
Update: Looks like it could very well be true. There is a post over at Crackberry with a poster who called Verizon and was told to expect it online November 16th and for the cool price of $89 after $100 mail-in-rebate. I can’t wait if this is true!
After Vodafone has announced it will offer the Storm for free in the United Kingdom, will Verizon follow suit? The Storm retails for $500 without a contract, but would cost the wireless provider considerably less. However, it would still be a lot of money for them to gamble on its success. AT&T has faced a similar decision having to fork out $375 for each iPhone totaling $900 million in the 3rd quarter alone. This has paid off for them though with the average iPhone bringing in $95 each month in cell phone service. Verizon would be in a similar position with each Blackberry Storm sold having a cell phone and data packages beginning at $80 a month.
The Blackberry Storm is Verizon’s first venture into having a blockbuster touchscreen phone with the previous attempts, just having lackluster sales. Offering it for free would help bolster its ability to maintain its exclusive sales rights for the phone in the United States. However, a more conservative guess would be that Verizon would offer the Storm for about the same price as the iPhone, $199 or less at $150. There are even some analysis saying we might see it at $99 to push holiday sales.
Either way I can’t wait for this phone to come out, which is another vital piece of information that we are missing – the launch date. There is a lot of information pointing at a release date of November 15th since the Verizon corporate retail stores are going to be open an hour earlier the week following. Two weeks away (hopefully); so very exciting for us Verizon users to finally get an exciting phone.
Well, Verizon finally made official the Blackberry Storm to its employees and general public this week. Yesterday an internal e-mail was sent to all employees detailing the Storm and giving them a sneak peak with some pictures and a video introduction. Naturally these were quickly leaked to the net. It definitely looks cool and I can’t wait for it to be on sales. Unfortunately no word on a release date has been announced yet. Anyhow, if you are as excited about this phone as I am take a look at www.verizonwireless.com/storm when it comes back up that is. And I also included the leaked video, hopefully it’ll stay up longer this time.
Usually, we only get excited for product unboxings, but this is a special occasion. The Blackberry 9530, previously referred to as the Thunder has now become the Storm, is one such occasion where a boxing is news. Since there hasn’t been much leaked in regards to the specs or even the official name, this is very a big development. This phone will be RIM’s first test of a touchscreen phone, definitely competiting with the iPhone. Also included in the package are an 8GB microSD card and a SIM card since it will be a world phone. However, there is no mention of possible WiFi connectivity included. More information should arrive by the CTIA convention on September 10th. The latest rumored release date in early October. I personally can’t wait to get my hands on this phone.
Just when I was getting ready to get the iPhone, the Blackberry Thunder decides to have its pictures leaked. Not much information to go on, but according to Crackberry.com it features a tactile response screen, its full QWERTY and the glass screen is also multi-touch. The latest rumored release date is early September; I can wait, right? Maybe I just got caught up in the iPhone hype. I guess my quest for a new phone just got delayed a bit as I wait for more information.
