RIM’s BlackBerry Storm, the biggest lump of crap to come out of Canada since Celine Dion, sold 500,000 units in its first month. Everyone who was everyone basically told RIM that this was a heap but did they listen? Nope.
“I found myself wanting to throw it in the ocean due to my frustration with its overall usability,” said Steven Golub, a longtime Verizon customer from Morristown, N.J., who bought the Storm the day it was released, but returned it a few weeks later.
Our own Peter Ha reviewed the phone and found it lacking. I used it for a few weeks and found it atrocious.
RIM is #2 in the U.S. and it’s abundantly clear they do a good job at keyboard phones for a certain audience. Do they really need to offer a mass market phone, especially one as ham-handed as they Storm? The Bold is well-loved and great for email. There was no reason for them to release the Storm, especially as half-baked in the first place.
Well it’s been out for two months now and Rim has attempted to fix this POS with one official software update and a bunch of “leaked” (beta) software updates. A few things have been improved but some of those fixes adversely affected other things. Some things have yet to be satisfactorily repaired. I think there are too many mechanical issues that cannot be addressed through software.
In short, this should NEVER have been released. The quest to make a lot of money for the Xmas season was the greedy culprit and RIM should be ashamed of themselves. RIM should halt production right now and either scrap the whole thing or re-engineer the “STORM II” and get it “RIGHT” this time, instead of trying to get it “RIGHT AWAY”.
What are your complaints about the interface? I don’t see anything wrong, outside of the very occasional freeze that gets cleared up pretty quickly. For god sakes my friends iPhone freezes up more then this phone.
This should of never been released and RIM is corrupt? Are you an idiot! Every single large company is corrupt and will do anything to make money! The blackberry storm is a solid phone, the production and materials are fantastic quality.
Let me guess…you’re an apple fan boy or a blackberry user that’s scared of a blackberry without a physical keyboard?
Jeez…I don’t own a Crackberry but I will say this “article” is the worst I have read on this site.
Someone needs a hug over there. Talk about a lack of content.
i have a storm (Telus Canada), and there are a few fixes needed but overall I am really happy with it. I’m not sure where all the bashing is coming from?
Wooooow, once again I’m going to bat for this phone. I’m surprised Peter didn’t write this article, he’s a Storm hater.
Seriously though don’t make this accusations unless you have irrefutable proof. I don’t see numbers, surveys, nothing.
If all of you guys used the phone during the first firmware. I agree with you, it was fucking horrible, I would of returned it as well. After the second upgrade it’s where the phone should of been in the first place. I love this phone, it’s better then 95% of the touch screen phones in the American Market. Why don’t you share this disdain for the Omnia or The Dare for god sakes, now those are horrible touch screen phones.
Blackberry must be doing something right. They’re selling the Storm like hotcakes and most of the Verizon stores around here still can’t keep them in stock. I don’t think over a million users would buy a “POS phone”…
I use this phone on a daily basis. I write emails, write text messages, take memo’s, it’s a blackberry for god sakes and I think it does it well. I think the interface is fantastic, I love the media player, and the internet browser is on par with Opera on the iPhone. Which are the two best browsers on mobile phones I’ve ever used.
I think all of the tech users are just butt hurt to see a blackberry without a physical qwerty board….oh no! Once you get used to the click screen you can begin typing very quickly. I can type a several paragraph email in a couple minutes.
But please, move onto things that deserve being bitched about.
@MarcM
Now YOU’RE the idot! I have one of these phones so no Iphone fanyboy here. There are more than just an occasional freeze as you state for a great many of us. You repeatedly say you love the interface. Ok, me too. Yawn. Many of us are having to click more than once to get a response and even RIM continues to struggle with trying to fix this and you know it!
How about the many who are still having issues with the camera functions and a host of other issues? Glad that yours is working for you but the reality is a lot of them are not working and this executive telling us to get used to even more devices coming from them that they “KNOW” is equally problematic, yet will be released anyway was a foolish thing for him to say!
What’s even more foolish are RIM fanboys like you who so willingly accept such dribble! YOU are making the future premature release of problematic devices acceptable to such executives! You idiot! The message they need to hear is we expect products to be at least reasonably ready! Jerks like you are helping to lower the bar even further. Unreal.
Hey Mar M? . . . How’s this for some more convoluted logic you’d love from Boeing Jet Manufacturers:
“We’re pleased to announce our new Jumbo Jet today. However, we’ve only been able to do some limited testing and while we’ve found all kinds of crap wrong with the it, we’d appreciate it if our flying public would just get on the thing and report back to us what happens! This will cut our beta testing and we’d sure appreciate it!”
I bet you and this RIM exec. would be the first on board huh?
Sorry people, but there’s no excuse for the disaster that has become the Blackberry Storm, just as there is no excuse for Microsoft’s most recent debacle, AKA, Windows Vista.
In each case, there is a mature and profitable company with virtually unlimited resources that had more than enough time to do a much better job than they did while, at the same time, charging their customers a premium price for what was hyped as a breakthrough product.
What a shock. Another rushed-to-market iPhone killer bites the dust. The Storm almost makes Microsoft’s Zune look good. And that certainly takes some doing.
Apple’s Steve Jobs set the standard, and continues to stay on the same course: Forget about competing; just do what you do best. And you know what? If Apple wanted to do it, they could become one of the nation’s biggest banks right now. They have zero debt and more cash than any of us could possibly spend in a lifetime.
What irks me most about the Storm — or, more accurately, Storm apologists — is that so many people were so willing to bash reviewers who forewarned them that the Storm is/was a broken toy out of the box — perhaps the most notable reviewer is David Pogue — yet they not only bashed him and others who provided similar reviews, but then went out and bought one anyway.
Worse than this, the so-called positive “reviewers” and self-reported Storm owners who, seemingly paid by the word, told us how much they loved their Storm; how much better it is than the iPhone; how much better it is than anything else available in the Universe. These people are not only reprehensible for their moral failings; they’re disgusting examples of what the most mean-spirited, most greedy and most despicable among us can be.
Stupidity sometimes kills people. Other times, it just helps people part with their money in a speedy fashion. But those who suffer from it ultimately get both.
Beautifully said “SkateNY” . . . and thanks!
amazing to read these articles bashing this phone I’ve had mine since the first day none of these issues one of the best phones I’ve owned. You guys can have the artsy fartsy kids toys from Apple I stay with my storm works great if you ask me.
I appreciate your thoughts but I think you kind of miss the point. First, some of us DO own RIM products and I for one do have the STORM. It does some things well but others not very well. So there’s no Apple fanboy stuff going on here.
The outrage came from the RIM executive who very, very foolishly announced that indeed the STORM was released while still known to be problematic in order to catch the Xmas rush AND he brazenly said to get used to buggy devices being released prematurely because this is what they’ll be doing in the future as well!
To say the least, this is a very bad marketing statement. Many RIM fans are awaiting the new Curve and Bold releases and if “THIS” is going to be RIM’s attitude then by all means their customers need to let them know this is not acceptable. I’m hoping you and others will think about this and find some merit in what we’re saying. Peace.
I love my storm…just wondering when Obama will upgrade from his 8700c now that he has gotten approval to use it in the oval office.
A
He doesn’t have an 8700c . . . he has an 8830 (see below):
http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/29/obama-blackberry-alert-its-a-blackberry/
Big thumbs down with my Storm, I cannot for any reason, get the phone toucscreen to operate in charging mode. I takes a sh*t every time and requires a battery removal soft boot to reboot and work properly again. also battery wont last the day.