If you're a Nokia or iPhone user, maybe the Storm's "clickable" touchscreen might finally be the thing that converts you to Blackberry.
It's easy to get a bit brand-loyal when it comes to phones - once you're hooked on Nokia, or the iPhone, or Sony Ericsson or Motorola, it can be hard to find reasons to switch.
But are you missing out on a good thing? For Nokia and iPhone afficionados, that "thing" is the Blackberry Storm.
News that Vodafone will be launching the touchscreen Blackberry Storm in Australia "later this year" should come as good news to smartphone users.
Blackberry is king in the US, with more than 50% of smartphone market. In Australia, it's still seen largely as a business tool, and smartphone market share was reportedly around 8.6% in the first quarter of 2008.
If there was ever an all-singing, all-dancing Blackberry with a chance of winning over millions of non-business Australian phone users, this is it.
Pricing and Australian launch dates are yet to be announced, but we're excited about the highly anticipated iPhone rival for two reasons. First, the Storm's "clickable" touchscreen has us wondering if RIM has finally found a way to better the iPhone's lauded screen.
The Storm's screen actually depresses, letting you click onscreen buttons "similar to the feeling of a key on a physical keyboard". Early reports from overseas bloggers who've had the opportunity to play with the Storm's screen have been positive.
Second, the Storm brings Blackberry's mobile email platform to the masses (well, more blatantly so than previous consumer attempts like the Blackberry Curve and the Bold).
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| Click the onscreen buttons and the Storm screen depresses. Verizon says it's similar to the feeling of a "physical keyboard" |
In terms of email, it's a no-brainer. We love Nokia's E71 (a more business-like design), and the iPhone 3G hit headlines for its Exchange Activesync abilities, but in the case of the iPhone, Apple faces serious competition from the Storm's email abilities.
Blackberry's no-nonsense interface should also be a positive. We were somewhat disappointed with HTC's multimedia touch screen phone, the Touch Diamond (though a recent update has improved things). Though there is still hope for Windows Mobile to pull out a winner in this category, with Samsung's Omnia.
Another dark horse is HTC's Touch Pro, which caters to both the touchscreen crowd and business QWERTY keyboard users.
Another thing we're looking forward to testing is the Storm's GPS functionality. Nokia seems to have the edge here, with sophisticated mapping software, and pre-loaded maps, and voice guided turn by turn. The Storm will also have turn by turn, which puts it one-up on the iPhone.
Still, we're wondering what RIM were thinking by leaving out WiFi - surely a major disappointment in Australia, where any way to avoid sucking down data via 3G is a good thing.
A 3.2 Megapixel camera is sufficient, but won't threaten the 5MP abilities in phones like the Nokia N96.
So there it is - on paper a winning forumula. iPhone-rivalling touchscreen abilities, Blackberry's leading email platform, coupled with music features (3.5mm jack, though only 1GB onboard storage, expandable to 16GB), and hopefully none of the interface clunkiness of Windows Mobile.
Fingers crossed, we may switch phones yet again.