I have been seriously lusting after the Blackberry Storm for months now. A die hard fan of Blackberry (I currently own a Blackberry Curve) I wanted all the perks of the iPhone and the phone quality and enterprise features of the Blackberry. After all I use my Blackberry to keep my business humming even when I’m not IN my physical office.
The Storm launched last Friday, November 21st and I’m glad I decided to wait to see what would transpire after real users had hold of one for more than a few seconds.
I read blogs, followed news stories and here is what I’ve gathered:
1. What? No WiFi? You have to be kidding me! (although I have to say EDGE has been sufficient for me so far it is still not ok for this device to be WiFi free)
2. Doesn’t Sync with the Mac (I don’t own a mac but many, many of my friends and associates do and this totally kills it for them, there are workarounds but there shouldn’t have to be workarounds at all)
3. Software is sluggish (rumor has it that there was a security issue so a quick patch had to be made, or they rolled back the software before launch, this is fixable with upgrades but I’d rather wait until the right software ships with the second-gen device)
4. RIM WILL get it right the second time around (RIM cares about it’s users and will get it right, they listen and we will in fact see a much better device in about six months or so, I’ll wait)
5. The “clickable” screen is still a little clunky, it does take about 30 minutes or so - based on reports - to get used to it. The next generation will take that clickable screen and improve on it based on real world use.
I don’t care whether the Storm is trying to kill the iPhone, to me the iPhone and the Blackberry meet different needs, just like the Mac and the PC. I lived and worked with Mac’s for over 10 years and switched to PC’s about 10 years ago. I worked at Apple before we all had desktops at home. I love the Macs for creative work, but the cost is prohibitive when productivity is more important than beauty.
To me Blackberry is best for business, iPhone is best for fun, fun, fun! So a mixture of both in my favorite handheld will make me the happiest Blackberry fan ever.
