Verizon announcing something tomorrow, possibly BlackBerry Storm

Dark clouds, a fingerprint, a shady character named "Mike" -- wait a second, don't tell us: Verizon's engaged in some sort of CSI-esque hunt for a rogue network technician (named Mike, we figure) who's casting evil spells on towers and degrading EV-DO speeds. Oh, no? We're way off, you say? Well, our next guess is that this might have something to do with the announcement of the Storm, RIM's very first touchscreen device that's been rumored for a Verizon debut since the wee months of the year. Whatever it is, it seems it'll be revealed tomorrow from the graphic being sent out to Verizon employees -- so let's all cram in as much rampant, unfounded speculation as we can this evening, shall we?

[Via Boy Genius Report, thanks to everyone who sent this in]

[Leindurstit @ Sep 14th 2008 11:17PM]

Fingerprint... touch and touch pro, mayhaps?

[Leindurstit @ Sep 14th 2008 11:17PM]

Touch Diamond, and Touch Pro, I meant to say.

[Sean @ Sep 15th 2008 12:12AM]

Man I hope so. I've been interested in those since the first time I saw them... I'd love to trade my krzr in for one.

[iofthestorm @ Sep 15th 2008 1:22AM]

Yeah, maybe it'll be to announce that they'll be getting the Touch and Touch Pro only 3 months later than everyone else this time. Ugh, Verizon. Best network, worst phones.

[Platinum_Skeet @ Sep 15th 2008 11:47AM]

It could be worse we could have T-Mobile... Talk about being shafted on phones they don't get the any of the new HTC's this year...

[cheese @ Sep 14th 2008 11:18PM]

Supposedly the blackberry storm sucks according to boy genius report.
http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/09/10/blackberry-storm-appears-on-video-sucks/

[Stephen @ Sep 14th 2008 11:37PM]

Could someone ban Mr. iPhone?

[Chris Ziegler @ Sep 14th 2008 11:56PM]

iPhone: actually, we don't ban you because trolling and making irritating fanboyish comments isn't a bannable offense in and of itself. Rest assured, if we wanted you off the site, we have our ways.

[Chris Ziegler @ Sep 15th 2008 12:32AM]

Ah heck, screw it. Banned.

[Linkman2004 @ Sep 15th 2008 12:48AM]

@iPhone:
There IS such a thing as IP bans.

[somebody7 @ Sep 15th 2008 12:55AM]

According to the Boy Genius, everything thats not ATT sucks. His reviews and posts have been transparently biased for a while now, just check the site yourself, you will see the backlash of posters that have figured this out.

[DStoltz @ Sep 14th 2008 11:20PM]

HTC Touch Diamond and the HTC Touch Pro.
There's my guess.

[Chris @ Sep 14th 2008 11:21PM]

*Gunshots* "Can you hear me now? **no response** "Good"

[EEaudio08 @ Sep 15th 2008 2:06AM]

fuckin LOL!

[John @ Sep 14th 2008 11:25PM]

it could be the storm or either of the HTC's. a new lg phone went through the fcc last week and it was said to be a touch screen. just another possibility

[thelolman @ Sep 14th 2008 11:31PM]

There is only one logical explanation.

The iPhone is hitting verison.

Yes. Megaton.

[lorddshadow @ Sep 15th 2008 12:14AM]

Actually, iPhone (the troll up above) is hitting Engadget.

Yes, Mega annoying.

[tbirdman @ Sep 14th 2008 11:44PM]

i was thinking of it being an announcement for the first android device on verizon. that would be cool; btw im a verizon subscriber. maybe they will anounce lans to be called vodaphone in the us. or maybe announce that they have acquired alltel. or maybe plans to buy sprint. or maybe plans to take over the world.

[Zzephyr @ Sep 15th 2008 2:57AM]

I think VZN has already formally announced the acquisition of alltel, so that can't be the coming announcment.

[JerseyBricklayer @ Sep 14th 2008 11:47PM]

Will you be the first to get lowest ranked in this thread? We will see.

[erhan @ Sep 14th 2008 11:48PM]

Go shoot your self. GOD!!!

[tchapp @ Sep 14th 2008 11:49PM]

its probably that crappy touch screen phone from motorolla.

[Bassir @ Sep 14th 2008 11:50PM]

I have an irrational unconditional hate for Verizon and their phones.

[richard @ Sep 15th 2008 12:02AM]

This has been known for a couple of days. A very reliable source posted this on Crackberry and Hofo forums. There is supposed to be a website launching as well. He did mention that this could be something else, but is fairly confident that this is for the Storm.

This is the address to the website that is supposed to launch tomorrow as well.
http://www.verizonwireless.com/storm

[Phil @ Sep 15th 2008 12:07AM]

there are storm clouds in the background... storm ... clouds ... storm ... ???

but it will probably be a fingerprint reader add on for all wi-fi cards due to the inclusion of the giant fingerprint...

or maybe....

if we think logically and put two and two together (including the launch of the new verizon website, verizonwireless.com/storm tomorrow) then we can assume it will undoubtedly be the launch of the new TOUCH-screen STORM.

[Graham @ Sep 15th 2008 12:09AM]

Mike is the Vice Prez. and and chief marketing officer of Verizon Wireless
http://newscenter.verizon.com/leadership/mike-lanman.html

[Bebo @ Sep 15th 2008 12:25AM]

Also, Mike is the CEO of RIM, and creator of the BlackBerry ;)

[Chris @ Sep 15th 2008 12:09AM]

@erhan

a lot of people might not be happy if god shot himself. but then again, a lot of people might be happy about that. who knows.

[SupaYoYoMan @ Sep 15th 2008 12:10AM]

ALLTEL MERGER!

[HalfJoey @ Sep 15th 2008 12:12AM]

his better be worth while. The only way Verizon is going to keep me come October is if they release a good version of the HTC Touch Pro or if they lower their BlackBerry service plan prices.

Bassir, "I have an irrational unconditional hate for Verizon and their phones." You're not the only one. They're a company I hate but I cant get away from with their amazing service.

[Scott @ Sep 15th 2008 12:16AM]

IT BETTER BE A WM TREO (800w or PRO - I don't care!).

!@#!@#~~!

[Scott @ Sep 15th 2008 12:18AM]

.
.
.

[Bobby @ Sep 15th 2008 12:22AM]

I WANT FIOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Jon @ Sep 15th 2008 12:29AM]

Seems like bad timing to release a phone called the "storm" with Ike and all...

[scott @ Sep 15th 2008 1:20AM]

lulz

[Gaucho @ Sep 15th 2008 12:47AM]

Wooo! I worked on this ad! representing on engadget.

[Charlie Murphy @ Sep 15th 2008 12:45PM]

then what is it?

[MastrCake @ Sep 15th 2008 12:50AM]

A Storm is coming...

Hence all of the clouds in the picture. Or is it smoke?

Whatever it is, I can't wait...

[MastrCake @ Sep 15th 2008 12:51AM]

If you worked on it, can you answer my question in the post below?

Smoke or Clouds? Or maybe Steam?

[MastrCake @ Sep 15th 2008 12:52AM]

That was meant as a reply to Gaucho.

[Gaucho @ Sep 15th 2008 1:00AM]

I can't say anything, I was just psyched to see the image on engadget. Sorry. I will say you have a pretty sweet avatar.

[jg @ Sep 15th 2008 4:21AM]

so bascially your saying the touch is coming based off his avatar.........

[dozx @ Sep 15th 2008 1:01AM]

I really don't like the Verizon tactics of locking you in to using all their services and blocking other apps from using stuff like GPS. They squeeze their customers for every last cent. It makes me sick. It probably will not have Wi-Fi cause Verizon already told BB they will not sell a phone on their network with Wi-Fi, so BB takes out the the offending technology and gives it a new model number or name and now it looks like it was just built that way, not that Verizon is the bad guy. It is funny how people will argue that, "that is just not a feature of that phone model." It is not a feature because Verizon doesn't want it to be a feature, not because BB built it that way. BB wants to make money and if Verizon won't sell their phone with Wi-Fi in it then they don't make money, so they change it so Verizon will sell it and yield to their demands. Carriers like Verizon are the single reason why the progression of the cell phone has been so slow here in America. I don't want to sound like an iPhone fanboy, but, up until the iPhone the carriers had nothing to worry about. Now it has them scrambling. The iPhone was the first phone in a long long time that truly moved the cell phone forward thanks to the fact that Apple had the back bone to stand up to these carriers and say look, "it is going to be our way or no way". We all know Verizon was offered first crack at the iPhone and screwed it up and stuck to their old ways of total control. Apple eventually went to At&t and they were willing to take the chance, to try something new. I am not saying At&t is perfect by any means but they took the chance. It was only after this that Verizon now states that it wants to open it's network and allow any phone and any app, still waiting to see it though. It will be interesting to see if Verizon has gotten past their old ways with this Black Berry!

[iofthestorm @ Sep 15th 2008 1:25AM]

Yeah, right now Verizon has all of two phones with wifi, and both cost $300. And I bet they'd try to force you to get a data plan too so they don't lose any money.

[Jon Nelson @ Sep 15th 2008 3:04AM]

Actually, I completely agree with you regarding the iPhone bits. I don't know much about Verizon as a network, or about their phones (other than they seem to cripple them to mere shadows of their original selves), but I know that one of the best things that the iPhone has done is light a fire under the asses of Microsoft (in the case of WinMo), RIM, HTC and the other smartphone companies to get them up to snuff.

I am a little surprised, though, that none of the fanboys have cried copycat (or are they over that particular stage of immature and baseless name calling?) over this phone.

[Saad Rabia @ Sep 15th 2008 1:56AM]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_(cellular_network)

[Martin @ Sep 15th 2008 1:56AM]

I'm an iPhone user and actually hope RIM does a good job with the storm or any other device to compete with the iPhone. If that happens Apple will have to make the iPhone better either by hardware or software upgrade, even though the did a pretty good job with 2.1, but I know they can do a better job.

[Colin Potter @ Sep 15th 2008 2:11AM]

I think it may be an ad for extremely simple photoshop procedures... such as FILTER -- RENDER -- DIFFERENCE CLOUDS

[Stewart @ Sep 15th 2008 2:12AM]

It's a pixelated picture!

[Husky Hog @ Sep 15th 2008 2:46AM]

A member of the howard forums pointed out the name of the picture, comingstormjr1.jpg

Sorry all HTC fans, I don't think this announcement will do us any good :(