BlackBerry Storm 9530 for Verizon gets boxed
By Chris Ziegler 
posted August 27th 2008 9:59PM
posted August 27th 2008 9:59PM
posted August 27th 2008 9:59PM
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Most Blackberry's have Wi-Fi. Its just that VZ always cripples their BBs by taking away the GPS and the Wi-Fi Features
I recently purchased a Curve (about 2 months ago), and I have no prob in missing Wi-Fi, cuz the VZ network is blazing fast.
HOWEVER. I do not agree with VZ about the GPS situation. Because THERE IS a GPS on the phone, but you can't use it without purchasing a subscribing to VZ navigator first.
Nonetheless, if I see that the Storm is THAT much better than the Curve, I plan on paying Full price for one
FALSE! Blackberries with the xx20 code have Wi-Fi. Others do not. None of the original BB Curve and Pearl for AT&T, T-Mobile, VZW, Sprint, etc. have Wi-FI. Please check your facts before making false claims about things you clearly know very little about.
okay this phone looks spectatular, no wifi its not the end of the world 30 bucks for data is the same that sprint and att is charging (unless you have the simply everything plan) and the GPS lock is because verizon wants to make money my question is about the touch screen. isnt this phone suppost to have some superior touch screen that vibrates to your finger and does a couple of other things, someone please let me know
Things RIM must do in order for it to even compete with the iPhone: better or something equal to the iPhone's touchscreen, better keyboard and of course a fairly advanced OS to integrate well with the touchscreen/keyboard. If RIM misses on those, 9530 will be a failure to most.
Good luck RIM, hope you can pull through - leave a statement why you're the smartphone leader in the world.
(Also, if RIM does nail this, it will finally push RIM to global handset status something they're already close in doing)
You make me laugh. Compete with the iPhone? Last time I checked, they've been out selling every phone including the iPhone. The iPhone is several firmwares away from being ready for Enterprise use. Better keyboard? This keyboard already can do landscape and haptic feedback (I used the keyboard on the iPhone and it's pathetic at best). Touchscreen is a big leap for BB and I hope the browser has been improved. iPhone still has the edge over BB in the browser department.
And yes, this is a Verizon exclusive (confirmed by many VZW Reps). BTW - no wi-fi is a pain in the arse. My VZW Curve can't take advantage of my wi-fi and EVDO converage is not up to par in my area. Without wi-fi, it's a no for me.
iphone is the best selling phone... Single sku in the amount of time...
Wow, some of you guys need to get your facts together. Only one or two posts above regarding VZW and BBs in general are accurate.
No kidding. What IS it about Blackberry posts here at Engadget that pulls the retards out of the woodwork? I haven't seen so many stupid and blatently false information comments on a post here in a LONG time...
Geez people, how about you get a freakin' CLUE what you're talking about before you open mouth and insert foot!
Maybe its a good thing I waited to buy an iPhone 3g. This will be an interesting phone.
Why do you believe the IPHONE is soooo great? NO MMS, NO VIDEO RECORDING, NO FLASH SUPPORT, NO JAVA SUPPORT, WEAK ASS BATTERY. PLEASE what a multimedia powerhouse. My $20 prepaid joby does all that. BUNCH OF RETARTS, ENGADGET INCLUDED.
Your $20 pre-paid phone does Flash and Java?
Tool.
His $20 pre-paid does the exact same things as the iPhone, therefore no MMS, no voice recording, eta.
Retarts?
Retarts? How ironic.
The thing most Iphone haters fail to realize is that unlike other phones, there is an upside to the Iphone that other phone will never have. It may be missing a few things, that other phones do flawlessly, it's only a matter of time between a software and or hardware update that Apple will make it happen.
Hey Chris, I've noticed that you report on Verizon a lot...... who is your inside source?
This is supposed to kill the iPhone? Ha!
Who said anything about killing the Iphone? It just has to be better...and judging from the problems the Iphone is having, that won't be that hard to do. ;)
@gareth:
You're an idiot. VZW monetizes everything about every device they sell, but they sure as hell didn't "remove" wifi from any Blackberry they offer. Not a single Blackberry model that's ever had a CDMA chipset in it has EVER had a WiFi chipset in it too.
Anyone notice that the Phone pictured does not have the Verizon logo and check smacked in plain view on the front ?? Verizon would never let this happen, is this box real ??
Any decision maker who wants to me make Verizon a leader “not a follower” would have added wifi to the phone even if it was not part of the setup, how could you kill the iphone if a major feature is not included? "sometimes you have to spend money to make money"
They dont get it
They even downgraded the chipset of the new HTC Diamond!!!
I think that Verizon doesn’t care for their loyal customers unless they add the wifi to the storm, they could add wifi SD card instead of the included 8 GB.
Verizon is the best always, and I think they have always had the best phones except for the past 60 years.
this will honestly rule the iphone...with the glitches the iphone is already receiving through at&t, they dont stand a chance! And with the blackberry data plan only 29.99 for unlimited it is certaintly worth it...i cant find anything negative with the phone yet, hopefully with the anticipation this is causing alot of consumers bb will keep its reputation with a plus!
Just my two cents... Bought the Iphone 3g, lots of fun and pretty cool. I could go on and on debating BB vs Iphone, both great devices. HOWEVER, I purchased the iphone thinking I would not really miss MMS, WOW was I wrong! I can't imagine buying another phone without MMS. I will for sure switch to the BB storm-thunder. If Apple is SOOOO great and they can rule the world, what is SOOOO HARD about adding MMS??? This phone will do very well! I guess that was 5 cents worth! OH WELL lol....
bb tool
Like someone mentioned earlier T-Mo prices and service are good, but the phone line up is crap. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel, revealing that T-mo will get either the BOLD or THUNDER?, come on T-MO get with the program. RIM must release these phones thru T-MO it would not make sense if they didn't, can you say world domination? I believe the DREAM is coming to T-MO but that design, i just don't know about it. For RIM to blow the Iphone away it needs WI-FI and 3G with a great running OS. Is there anyone who can bring me a hero????
I am excited about the Storm/Thunder through Verizon. I have to say I HOPE VERIZON checks the costs of other plans out in the market and will be competitive.
Otherwise they may have a great phone but hard to sell $129.00 montly plan when everybody elses is $69.00 for the total package, including tevelision ability on the phone.
VERIZON, has thought they are the "cats ass" and if they continue to think like "THEY" do they may wake-up and be called by another name in the near future. I hope all VERIZON customers will band together and be heard loud and clear. Verizon needs to lead in the competition by example and not be lead by the $$$$$ they see in each of us, and lack of attention we "The Client" receive.
I use to work for the "Thightest Ship- ing company, UPS till competition became what it is. Then the're attitude had to change and rather then Kiss my Ass and try to ship through someone else............... it became How Can I Kiss Your Ass.
If it truly doesn't have any WIFI, then it falls in the trash heap with the other so-called Iphone killers. I will be saving my cash for when the 32g iphone comes out.
I only scanned all the posts above on this thread, so I may have missed something, but I have a contact at VZ and they confirmed that VZ is not getting the BB Bold, but in Q4 this year they will have the Storm/Thunder model. Not sure that will be good enough for me, I have heard the touchscreen keyboards are tougher/different to use than the tactile button types.
Stop beginning conversations with the word "so". Its lazy and very uneducated sounding.
Correct if I'm wrong but wasn't the Curve the first to recieve because it's a @Home phone? Not sure about the rest because I lost interest in keeping up with them. But I rock an i760 with Wi Fi so all that jazz about VZW crippling is BS. This phone looks pretty cool but not even remotely interested in full touch screen phones.
Sure they are some Verizon phones that have wifi, but they are not the sexiest of beasts. Take Blackberries for instance. There is a reason why they don't have wifi in them. Verizon doesn't want wifi in there, if they did there would me Wifi blackberries on Verizon. What's the advantage? Voip calls, away around data caps, and better coverage in places where Verizon doesn't work well like overseas.
Will be able to play poker online with this phone!?!?! I have a gambling problem and a phone that can help me get my fix
Is it me or are the Data Plans on these things super confusing?! I see a lot of Banter back and forth about what the exact data plan values are... and noone seems to have the answer. Never mind the fact that they're leaving out the "contract" details of a phone upgrade or purchase.
All I want is someone to tell me what the bottom line price is going to be. No strings attached. No contracts.
Seriously. If I buy this phone, I'll have to sign a two year contract and be locked in to some ridiculous rate plan that at first seems like a great deal, but is actually $5-10 more than the advertised price.
I'm sick of cellphone companies. I'm sick of contracts and bad rates. I'm sick of windows mobile (thank god it's a RIM). Why can't anyone just make this simple?!
You can thank California for ruling that the early termination fee for your contract is now Illegal. Now instead of being a set fee, it will be a rate that adjusts depending on how early you are terminating. So now you won't be charged the full fee if you abandon you contract a month early
hmmm..... everyone here is saying that the BB's that don't have Wi-Fi or other features on Verizon are being slammed by people saying that the phones being designed and for use on the Verizon Network don't have it to begin with..... But, there is a reason the BB's that come to Verizon don't have Wi-Fi, and that reason is because most people don't know that carriers like Verizon have a relationship with the handset makers, and they dictate to these handset makers what they will and will not accept in a handset on their network. So, to end the argument, YES, Verizon DOES NOT WANT PHONES WITH WI-FI ON THEIR NETWORK and to make sure of that they dictate to the handset makers what they will allow them to make for their network. The people arguing that Wi-Fi is simply not a feature of a specified phone on the Verizon network are correct, but only because Verizon already told BB that they would not support a phone with Wi-Fi so BB makes a change to the phone takes out Wi-Fi and gives it a new model number so Verizon will sell their phone. So REALLY Verizon is still the bad guy here. The reason to get more of your money. They rope you in to force you to use only their services and make it very difficult to do things without incurring a charge to do it. This is the same reason they block profiles in Bluetooth that would allow you to circumvent there network. Bottom line for Verizon is that they want you to have to do it through their network to get more money out of you for every little thing you may want to do. They block GPS so you have to use their App, and only their App has access to GPS. It is so underhanded it makes me sick.
My concern is GPS. I got a Curve and was upset when I found out Verizon locked out the GPS unless you pay for their service unlike the AT&T and Sprint models that can be loaded with any software the customer wants, and has a choice on what application they want.
Call me when Verizon enables Wi-Fi.
If I'm not mistaken, which I very well could be... the Storm comes with a full HTML Browser... what's the difference between that and WiFi?