RIM CEO confirms a new Storm is brewing
By Nilay Patel 
posted May 4th 2009 4:37PM
posted May 4th 2009 4:37PM
It's not like we're surprised to hear this, but RIM CEO Jim Balsillie just told Reuters that the company is hard at work on a successor to the BlackBerry Storm. According to Jim, the consumer market is "large and untapped," and the current Storm is a "huge success in terms of sales and adoption." Sure, sure -- it's hard to scoff at a million units sold, after all -- but with rumors of an entirely new approach to text entry flying around, we'd say there's a good chance the Storm 2 doesn't so much build on the Storm formula as start over entirely. Thoughts?[Via PhoneScoop]
Horray!
I love my storm but it's so slow :/
upgrade the OS to the latest unofficial build...it makes a world of difference.
I too love my storm
Head on over to crackberry and learn how to upgrade the OS. It's pretty simple, quick, and even if you do something "wrong" it can be fixed.
The latest software is very fast. I love it.
while you're at it go get opera mini and pandora, just so that you have large web downloads and streaming radio handled...
I have the 9500 (Vodafone, Ireland.)
There is no higher firmware than 4.7.0.78, Which I'm on now....
Totally lame.
actually i think they're up .141 on 9500 irregardless of network...I'm using .113 and perfectly happy. Everything after .90 I think has seen diminishing marginal returns, but they updates just make it a completely different experience.
@skant
Irregardless isn't a word. Don't use it.
Irregardless is a word, because it's a collection of letters in a clause with a meaning. Whether it's grammatically sound or accepted by a standardised form of English is an entirely different matter of course ;)
irregardless is a word...look it up...
A million units sold on Verizon is nothing.. There are 85 million Verizon customers and many like myself are stuck on verizon either from network coverage issues, family plans, or business accounts we have no control over. Verizon has the worst lineup of phones of any major carrier in the United States, and so anything new that is even halfway decent --- particularly from RIM -- is going to sell some amount of units.
That said, I do not own one and nor would I ever buy one.
- Despite having a 624mhz (ARM11 ) Qualcomm chip with QDSP5000 DSP (capable of acting as a GPU), the Storm's interface and many applications are unbearably slow after owning an iPod Touch. Blackberry rushed this thing to market without any decent level of optimization.
More importantly, they just stuck the old Blackberry OS onto this thing half-assed instead of developing a new version from the ground up for touch control.
None of the Blackberry OS models have interfaces that take advantage of the powerful graphics acceleration in modern smartphone hardware, and thats why you see the slow and laggy performance in the interface and web browser, and why it feels so much different than a iPhone/Pre/G1.
grammar lesson for the day:
regardless means, literally, "without regard." the prefix ir- also denotes "without." (consider irrespective, irrational, etc.)
so, if you use the suffix *and* the prefix, you're being redundant.
you're also canceling the meaning out (e.g. "I won't not do that.") in which case irregardless would mean "with regard."
either way, you sound like an idiot.
I got my Storm the first week, had it for a week, returned it the next, payed the ETF, and got an iPhone. But AT&T's network sucks. How could there be Edge in LA? Seriously? The 2nd largest market in the country and I'm on Edge in Universal City?
actually brett you sound like an idiot for giving a grammar lesson on a tech blog...we're all impressed
Thoughts? Yes. Please start from scratch as the first storm was awkward.
The only thing keeping me from jumping from the blackberry to an iphone or the G1 is the Blackberry's amazing keyboard. Find something similar, and I'm sold, otherwise, I can't perform my time tested skill of one handed typing without even having to look at the keys....
Did RIM just grab the #1 spot away from the iPhone 3G?
http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090504.html
To be honest, not too sure about the reflective accuracy of those figures. After all we're talking about one Apple model (iPhone 3g) vs how many Blackberry models?
Both phones come in a few versions. I don't think it matter too much though in terms of sales, as the differences are minor.
Yeah, and I'm sure that the toyota yaris outsells the corvette too.
They also sell the curve at 4 providers in the us, and the iphone
is just at att. Other than they are both "smart phones" how are they
alike? Other than one handed texting the iphone is way better.
Ok, you guys cant play both sides of the fence on this.
On one hand, when the iPhone makes it to the top of some sales list, screaming "OMG the iPhone is the greatest evah!!", and then when it's not "Well that's because X has X number of models. The numbers are suspect!!"
Maybe, I know this may be hard to believe, but maybe people actually have a desire to use other devices, and dont have a fanatical devotion to the iPhone.
If you read the article, they seem to have done a fair job of breaking them down -- Blackberry Curve 83xx as one "group", all iPhone 3G models as another group, BB storm as another, etc. It's not all Blackberries versus all iPhones which would be a bit suspect.
I do find it amusing that they credit a "buy one get one free" promotion with the boost. No kidding, two for the price of one, and your units shipped goes up?
All I could want is the new VZW OS
I know this phone gets dogged on the net, but I actually see a lot of people with this phone.
slide out qwerty and i'm sold.
a slide out keyboard is not BB style. Don't be too disappointed....
Touchscreen is not BB style either, but they did it. Now they'll need to take on the Pre.
I'm pretty sure there were phones with slide out QWERTYs before the Pre.
Neither was flip-style, till recently.
I heard it comes with a court stenographer and they type everything for you and the screen is magic and unfolds to any size and girls will want you and guys will want to be you and it can fly and runs on love and dreams and can get you any CEO job you want and fits in a tic-tac box and and and...
Awesome! Can I get a 10 year contract?
The current storm looks like a nice idea, but it's SHIT to use.
They better had improve it, or else uptake will dwindle. I know of 5 people already that think it's a dog, and are getting rid asap.
make the OS faster with more vibrant icon colors with wi fi, a little more thin and this will be the best touchscreen phone ever.
Good! hopefully they can get it right this time ;)
Wifi please, thanks
get rid of the nasty screen with the click is awful to type on just a normal captive screen please and a slide out keyboard and it would sell
The IPhone is a great toy. My 3 year old loves hers. It is a compromise, to say the least, for business. The Storm is successful because it is available on Verizon. RIM could never sell the Storm on AT&T. Why would anyone buy a Storm over the Bold or IPhone? I am a long time Verizon customer, and gave the Storm a try. It was serviceable for work and email, the OS was nice, but just like the IPhone, if you type long complicated emails or notes, it is frustrating, and impossible to edit. I went back to the Pearl.
Everyone is asking for a touch screen phone with a tactile keyboard....G1 guys. How about a tactile keyboard on the back side of a Storm (better than a slider, right?). In the mean time, if you put a trackball on the Storm, that would be enough for me.
Your 3 year old has a cellphone?
Something doesn't compute.
Just my opinion, but I find typing a lengthy email on ANY phone to be tedious. Actually, as most iPhone users will say, the touchscreen keyboard is faster than anything else I've used once I got used to it. I can type almost as fast as a regular keyboard although not quite as comfortably. I'm running the 3.0 beta and the copy/paste functions are pretty good for most things. They are great for lengthy text as you were needing and for pictures. The only complaint I have about the copy/paste in beta 3 is when trying to select from a tight space, especially on webpages with overlapping cells where you tend (even on desktop browsers) to select over multiple cells. Overall, though, it is great. Still, if you can't get into the touchscreen keyboard, that's a good reason to go RIM because Apple would never make a slider or put a physical keyboard. However, with the ability to make external hardware for the iPhone in 3.0, someone could make a case with one that flips or slides (or is on the back as you mention), or just something external.
uggg, go get the updated OS...
I bang away multi paragraph emails insanely fast, faster than a regular blackberry, an it's because of the OS. It's annoying that verizon are holding up the official update, but it shouldn't keep anyone who reads a gadget blog to install an OS update. It's really basic in the first place.
On a BES server, so we are wed to BBs. Handed out 4 of these suckers to execs and 3 of them got returned. "Unusable", "Slow", "Wonky" -- not a good word was said about this machine. The execs went back to the Curve. Verizon hasn't had an official OS update since December.
I've held on to mine, waiting for the next OS upgrade, sort of hoping that they will fix this machine. With ver2 apparently announced, I imagine that RIM/Verizon are giving up on this creature.
I'll move on to the 8900 in June, I guess.
Will this version be The Perfect Storm? Sorry, could not resist. :)
Release it on more than one carrier this time...
They should call this phone the Blackberry Hickey because that is what it leaves on balls after it sucks em'.
@Najakwa
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/irregardless
"The most frequently repeated remark about it is that “there is no such word.” There is such a word, however."
Hopefully this storm isn't made up by The National Organization for Marriage.
hi there, i'm stormylover. you all *may* remember me from earlier storm posts! anyway, i'm very glad they'll be releasing a new storm, but then again, i'm a little upset because now i'm stuck with an old phone once again. -pout- this will inevitably lead to many jokes and quips from the nonstormylover bf - most of dubious quality - about my inferior technology (he's an unproud iphone user).
i do think this will be The Perfect Storm! at least i hope so :-/ otherwise, i may be forced to switch to the iphone so that i can actually write a half decent text in under five minutes every once in a while.
nevertheless, i like having a different phone from all the iTard users, it's worth it, even if takes forever to type. ;-D
~stormylover~
I don't think I have heard of you before.
What does cloudylover have to say about this?
According to recent NPD numbers, there are more Blackberry users than iPhone users. So your "different phone from all the iTards" comment is hilariously misplaced, since it would seem that Blackberry owners are the real sheep, not iPhone owners. Yes, you're being different by doing what the majority of other people are doing. Congrats.
There are also more models of BB's than iPhone's.
And they are available on more networks.....
FAIL
i don't see how that's a fail, NO THANKS. regardless of how many blackberries there are, it's still the case that a majority of douches own iPhones and flaunt them excessively as if they were some amazing undiscovered jewel of the ancient world. my bf being the exception, he got it for reasons i cannot explain concisely:)
similarly, even though PCs still dominate the market, it's still the case that mac users, by and large, come off as sheep-like, simply buying "something different." PC buyers actually worry about things like, oh i don't know, ability to manipulate the machine to their desired specifications.
even though smaller proportionally, apple fans are disproportionally annoying. and you are a prime example! :-D i see no reason why i shouldn't try to align myself w/ the less wack crowd!
~stormylover~
oh, just click on my username and you can see my earlier post on the storm! :-)
as for cloudylover, i take you mean the unproud iphone using bf. he's just grumpy that he's been forced to conform with the rest of the itards; i think he secretly wishes he had a stormy too.
the other stormy owners can surely attest to the feeling!
~stormylover~