The BlackBerry Storm ad that might have been

[Thanks, Michael]





A look back on popular stories from today in a specific year.

Now that we've thrown 'em off the trail, use the form below to get in touch with the people at Engadget. Please fill in all of the required fields because they're required.
RIM knew that the Storm is destined to lose against the iPhone because of the lack of WiFi.
That is why this ad never aired.
@Sylvanus
God, I really don't want to start seeing "Hi, I'm an iPhone...And I'm a Blackberry..."
What a bunch of pussies. This ad should have been aired, regardless.
"The world's first touch-screen Blackberry?" So there are other companies that make Blackberry but RIM happens to be the first one to make a touch-screen one?
Yeah, I noticed that stupidity too.
What? What doesn't make sense about that? It's the only touchscreen blackberry.... that is a true statement. They say first, but first doesn't imply it's not the only one. Its the first because they will make more, there is nothing wrong with what they said...
-Taylor
Yes. RIM's really pushing the market for blackberry-branded devices. Pretty much everything they do is a world's first.
oooh i get, the blackberry destroys the "apple" iphone
youre right. if they aired that apple would come back at rim with a gazillion lawers. i want gun that shoots blackberries!
It's a cool add; too bad it's for a horrible phone.
*ad, excuse my stupidity.
They should have included Wi-Fi. I mean it's not like it never crossed their minds. Bad decisions.
Hey spin, maybe you should use one with updated firmware before make a silly comment like that. Pity the fool that relies on reviews. Oh, and in 3 months of ownership I haven't needed Wifi once. But I have been happy to have a camera with a flash, copy and paste, tethering, video cam, external music controls, and so on.
@MONKEY:
I didn't rely on reviews. What I found when I tried the Storm was the worst touch screen interface of any present-day cell phone.
"before *you* make a silly"
exactly! the phone is horrible
Meh, maybe you find it to be a terrible interface, but I've used both the Storm and the iPhone quite a lot, and I prefer the Storm. First of all, you NEED to upgrade the firmware. If you were using the launch FW (which you probably were) then I can see why you hate it. I'm running 4.7.0.99, and the difference is remarkable.
And one last point - it's amazing what a little practice can do. If I'd made my judgement on the Storm after messing around with it for 5 minutes, I would think it was worthless as well.
I think the message here is really clear. I like the ad, though.
The message is very clear. RIM can't stand seeing Apple continually laugh all the way to the bank so they're trying to drum up business for their own device.
The idea of the berry going through the apple is genius. They should run it with a different ending when the Storm is actually competitive. "Nothing can touch it" is also a bit misleading, seeing as how horrible the storm's software is compared to the competition's. I like the Bold more anyhow.
I see what you did there.
"Nothing can touch it." So the Blackberry Storm = M.C. Hammer of phones. Notably absent are the parachute pants.
I like it. It's better than those mundane ads they ALWAYS use with all the pictures, video, beach-ball and crap coming together to form a Blackberry while lame ass music plays in the background. And it's better than some smug sounding asshole talking about how awesome the App Store is on the iPhone but he fails the mention the greatness of iFart. Neither companys' ads do anything for me.
"Except you, you can touch me..." - Peter Griffin
HAHA, they probably waited to release this add until they saw what kind of pablicity it got and if it was an iPhone killer. When they realized it was no where close (what could they expect with an OS that crashes more than not when first released) they decided not to air it!
Oh RIM, you make me laugh.
"Nothing can touch it"??? LOL, ..."The worlds first touchscreen blackberry...but nothing can touch it"
Hrm... all these people that just had to comment on that. I got it, was it really that difficult?
I think RIM did it on purpose. It's called a pun. as in - it's their first touch screen and no other phone manufacturer can come close to its awesomeness? Unfortunately, not very true. But, there ya go.
...and what the hell is pablicity? it's "nowhere" in the dictionary.
airing this would have been awesome...
after 50% of the phones got returned, and apple aired it's own "half didn't want to touch it" reply ad.
*ad and *publicity wow, I cant spell tonight
Excellent add!!! but an interesting point was raised, comparing the Blackberry to Apple is pretty confrontational.
i guess before you start slinging the shit... you should maybe make certain your product even works as intended. argue all you like with apple's choice on how things are done... but at least their works. of all my clients that ran out to buy one (38 i think was the last count)... only 1 has one anymore. and he carries a "backup" razr or something just in case. the rest returned them and went back to older models. i think a couple switched to att for an iphone, but not any significant number.
Did you seriously just compare the bugs in a 3 month old device with the bugs in a year-and-a-half old device? How's that short-term memory treating you? Because the iPhone was riddled with bugs when it came out. I guess that doesn't count in an Apple fanboy's universe.
Oh, and if you want to talk about bugs...let's talk about Apple's iPhone/iPod touch album art bug that remains unfixed after at least a half-dozen firmware updates. Seriously...how difficult is it to do album art? Guess it's pretty difficult when your programmers have their heads up their asses.
One thing that can be said about RIM that cannot be said about Apple: they fix their shit. Apple just adds more features to distract people away from the bugs they can't remedy.
Too bad the Storm wasn't all it was cracked out to be.
They probably pulled it because representing that their product "destroys" the competitor is to acknowledge that their competitor is a threat (which they definitely are). I think this ad would have made them look really dumb considering the problems the Storm has had. I'm no fanbouy and I have owned RIM products for longer than Apple so not like I have anything against either, just sayin.
That is awesome.
Damn it I wish they ran that ad.
Anyone else thing it looks like those car commercials that are on the air now where the bullet morphs into a car?
Yeah def, those are Acura ads
Love the sound effects...should have been aired.
Yeah why in the hizell didn't they run it? only phrase comes to mind from the movie Dumb and Dumber "Pusssssyyyyy! Pussssaaaaaeeee!" :]
That was totally awesome. The ad, not the reality the statement.
"...the reality of the..."
And then a huge Palm smacks all these fruits effortlessly and throws them out of the Windows, where they are gathered by Androids and processed.
Androids who are lubing up and getting on Sybians?
Those are by far the funniest of comments +1
Fuck you guys. I like my Storm. NO, it's not the iPhone. YES, I wish it's app store was better. YES, it has problems that could be fixed with a simple software update. But I still love it. And if I got an iPhone now, it'd feel weird to me, just like an iPhone user would feel weird using the Storm.
Glad you like it. Question for you though. How do you use it if you can't touch it?
The BB app store is out? When did this happen? I thought it was officially coming out in March.
I'm with ya--I love my storm too. But it can be frustrating at times. But now that Verizon has unlocked the GPS on the storm, it has more value for me now and google latitude is the shit. Also, typing on it in portrait is so much easier and accurate than typing on the iphone-for me at least.
So... how come the Blackberry makes two exit holes? When you shoot something the entry wound is quite different from the exit. And in a fruit as small as an apple sufficient ballistic force would cause it to completely explode. Now if they had gotten the ballistics right and had the apple blow up I'd have to say WIN. But since they didn't that only leaves one alternative...
... learning who Doc Edgerton was, and looking at his pioneering stroboscopic photos.
Excellent ad!
It's one of those that make you go why the hell didn't I think of that?
Too bad the phone is a lemon.
Yea too bad the phone is much shittier than the ad.
I am still waiting for Verizon Curve 8900.
Why is the apple exploding outwards in both directions when being punctured by the blackberry? Should it not fold inward on the side it was struck and explode outward on the side the projectile blackberry exits the apple?
Nah, that's pretty much how it looks. Google for high speed photography. There is no room for the apple to fold inward - basically the bullet pushes into the apple until the material is squished too much and it explodes around the bullet. It's not quite as even as this ad shows but it does do it.
-Taylor