Steve Makris
Sun
The Storm is RIM’s first foray into the touchscreen market.
Research in Motion Ltd.’s first touch-screen BlackBerry, the 9530 Storm, will be available to Canadians with Telus before the holiday season.
It carries all of the standard BlackBerry business features but is also aimed at consumers and poised to compete with the popular iPhone from Apple Inc.
“The Storm is sexy meets smart,” said Tammy Scott, vice-president of marketing communications at Telus. “It has an innovative virtual touch-click keyboard on a high resolution screen, and all the multimedia applications one could hope for.”
The Storm’s 3.25-inch screen is slightly smaller than the iPhone’s 3.5-inch screen, but it’s unique touch-and-click feature is meant to make it less likely for users to inadvertently start other phone functions or push the wrong button.
This gives the Storm an advantage over other touch phones, especially in typing, and will attract hardcore BlackBerry users with current smaller real keyboards. The screen reverts to a much larger keyboard when held horizontally but can also be used as a smaller three-tap key functionality like traditional phones.
It includes a 3.5-megapixel camera and video that can be used while you are talking or browsing online.
“We expect this phone to be a huge hit with consumers and businesses across Canada,” said Scott, stressing the Storm’s traditional BlackBerry business and security features.
Pricing has not been announced, but is expected to be competitive with the current leading consumer smart phones priced up to $200.
© The Vancouver Sun 2008