Vodafone reveals Storm pricing

Alex Kidman | Nov 19, 2008 9:24 AM

How much damage will RIM's latest Blackberry do to your wallet? Vodafone reveals all.

Vodafone has today released the pricing you'll have to pay if you're keen on RIM's latest take on a consumer-centric Smartphone, the Blackberry Storm.

Available from the 1st of December, the Storm is valued at $899, but initially the consumer offerings will be 24-month contracts that include that cost in the contract itself.

Caps range from $69 (with $340 worth of calls and SMS) to $149 (with $2000 worth of calls and SMS) as well as "unlimited" Blackberry email and internet.

Unlimited email is a hallmark of most Blackberry plans, but it's worth noting that the unlimited internet only applies if you're using the Storm's inbuilt browser; any other browser or online use above 3MB will attract a chunky 50c/MB charge, although it's not clear at the time of writing if that's a monthly or per-use cap on data.

We'll update you once Vodafone makes it clearer. You can access Vodafone's pre-registration page for the Storm.

The obvious comparision point to the Storm would be Apple's iPhone 3G. If you're most keen on a smartphone for the email, the Blackberry Storm (or, indeed, any Blackberry) would make good sense given the "unlimited" cap applied there, but once you switch other data into the equation, it's murkier; the same $79 cap on a Storm or an iPhone gets you the same $550 "worth" of calls and texts, but the iPhone also has 400MB of data allowance per month.