This is a guest post written by Joe Pawlikowski. Joe is the Senior Editor for BBGeeks where he tries to help you make sense of all things Blackberry. In addition to industry related news BBGeeks offers detailed information of BlackBerry Service providers in Canada and the United States.
In terms of sales, the BlackBerry Storm has done well. It consistently ranks among the top selling smartphones from month to month, and the original was popular enough for RIM and Verizon to release a second version this past October. We've even heard rumors of a third version for 2010. While that could include a slide-out keyboard, it will remain different from other RIM devices. But is that difference the best path for the company?
The Storm and the Storm2 have weathered much criticism. Neither comes close to the functionality of the iPhone, the device they're ostensibly competing with. The software was so buggy on the original that it took until the following April, five months after release, to get a decent patch. The Storm2 has had its own set of issues, including one with the screen, which RIM has recently corrected. A large number of BlackBerry fans consider the line a disappointment.
This doesn't come as a huge surprise. RIM strayed from its bread and butter, devices with quality physical keyboards, to compete with Apple. This is somewhat like battling an opponent on unfamiliar turf. For example, humans are land creatures, and probably shouldn't take to fighting sea creatures in the ocean. It's not our natural environment, so we have a disadvantage. The same goes for RIM. Its advantage lies in its predictable, dependable devices. Releasing the Storm put them down a different path.
In talking with a friend the other week, the topic of the Storm came up. He owned the original, and ended up breaking his contract about a year later to try another device. It just wasn't working the way he wanted it, he said, even though the email delivery system, the main reason he got a BlackBerry in the first place, functioned just fine. He didn't even give the Storm2 a chance, because he knew that, like its predecessor, it would disappoint. After playing with one a bit after release, he was vindicated. "Not much better than the original," he said.
That led us to discuss the possible mistake RIM made in releasing the Storm. "Why," he wondered, "would RIM release a device without a keyboard? Wouldn't they have been better off doing something like the Palm Treo, with the keyboard and the touch screen?" I tended to agree, noting that there have been plenty of rumors about RIM releasing that type of device. We heard about it last year when it was codenamed Magnum, and then again when RIM worked it and renamed it the Dakota. Given the familiarity people have with the BlackBerry brand, I agreed that perhaps RIM would have been better off releasing that type of device.
Just a few weeks ago we saw another new device type for RIM, a touchscreen slider. The pictures hit the web just after this conversation, so my first thought was, Why? Why again? I'm not saying it's a mistake -- I don't represent RIM's user base, so I don't know exactly what everyone wants. It seems to me, though, that the Treo style might go over a bit better with the market. It has the familiar design we've come to associate with BlackBerry, and it has the added bonus of the touchscreen, albeit considerably smaller than other touchscreen devices.
It is good to see RIM experimenting and seeing where they can take the company next. It's the sign of a company not content with its place. I do think, however, that they could have gone about it a bit differently. They might be in a better position now to release a full-screen touch device if they had already released a successful keyboard/touchscreen device. Now, though, RIM has to worry about disappointed customers, like my buddy, who have already written off their touchscreen devices.
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