BlackBerry Cell Phones

Here it is: the first ever BlackBerry with a touchscreen, long anticipated and rumored for the past few months - after all the blurry photos and patchy info. And this time, it looks like Apple really has competition.

Leaked information on a few specialty blogs revealed late yesterday the BlackBerry Storm, Research in Motion's (RIM) first touchscreen smartphone, launched exclusively on Verizon Wireless. The news of having the phone exclusively with one carrier is nothing you haven't heard before, as Apple created a precedent when it launched the iPhone only on AT&T.

Specs Revealed

In a document for Verizon employees (PDF) many of Storm's specs are revealed (PDF) and are not too shabby. Actually, some are better than the iPhone's. One that strikes first, given the consumer nature of the device, is Storm's 3.2-megapixel camera (possibly auto-focus but no flash) which outdoes by far iPhone's 2-megapixel 2006 style camera (actually, Nokia's N90 had a 2MP camera and flash).

Even better, some of iPhone's harshest critics will be dazzled when they will see that BlackBerry Storm has a removable memory (on board memory not mentioned) and a removable battery. Even iPhone's long awaited picture messaging feature is already present in the Storm.

By Matt Asay

I used to think I was an early adopter. But then then iPhone hit, and I just couldn't feel the hype. I had to go into my local Apple Store today to have an iPod fixed, and discovered that Apple had plenty of iPhones on hand (to try and to buy). So, I gave it a spin.

It's beautiful. It's easy to use. It has everything going for it, except two:

1. It's not very easy to type on this thing, whatever Mossberg may tell you. It's just not.

2. It doesn't fundamentally change the value proposition of a phone/PDA combo.

On this first point, I suppose one could get used to hitting a screen and, if Steve Jobs is to be believed, eventually we all will. Why? Well, because Mr. Jobs tells us to. (I'm a diehard Mac fanatic, so I've been convinced by him before against my will. :-)

But it's the second point that has me sticking with my Blackberry (after years of using a Treo and recently switching to the Berry). I love my Blackberry. It's not as pretty as the iPhone, but it's so intuitive in other ways (e.g., little touches like clicking to call the sender of an email) that I can't think of a single reason to leave it.

If anything, I'd leave my Blackberry 8700 for the Blackberry Curve. Thinner and lighter than my existing Blackberry, the only thing it lacks is the scroll wheel (to which I've become addicted).

Again, it's not that the iPhone is a bad device. It is an excellent device. It's just not better, and in some ways it's worse, than what I (and perhaps you) already have. When I switched to the Mac back in 2002, it was because it was dramatically better than my Windows (and Linux) machines.

The iPhone doesn't present the same justification. I don't spend $500 on a cool but needless toy.The Blackberry is not broken, therefore I won't be fixing it.