BlackBerry Storm.. Misses the Mark?

As William mentioned last week, the new BlackBerry Storm is hitting the shelves roundabout now.

Engadget has just published its' review.. the summary...

 

"The selling points are easy: the phone is gorgeous to look at and hold, it's designed and backed by RIM (now almost a household name thanks to their prevalence in the business and entertainment markets), and it's packed with features that, on paper, make it seem not only as good as the iPhone, but better. The only hitch in this plan is a major one: it's not as easy, enjoyable, or consistent to use as the iPhone, and the one place where everyone is sure they have an upper hand -- that wow-inducing clickable screen -- just isn't all that great. For casual users, the learning curve and complexity of this phone will feel like an instant turn off, and for power users, the lack of a decent typing option and considerable lagginess in software will give them pause."

 

The standout sentence from this for me has to be "complexity of this phone will feel like an instant turn off" .. Oh dear, oh dear..it sounds like BB has scored a major own goal then.  This is not too much of a surprise though is it?! I do admire BB's enterprise messaging services, however their devices’ menus, sub-menus, options and more options etc are always way too complex in my opinion, and here with the Storm, they are planning to compete with the incredibly user friendly iPhone, which of course, has simplicity running right through its veins. Bit of a shame really.

 

It will be interesting to learn what the 'hardcore' CrackBerry BB users think of the Storm though. At my workplace, the board directors all obtained iPhones during the first week of release, they used them for a mere 24 hours with ActiveSync, and then promptly ditched them in favour of their trusty BBs, finding that the iPhone just wasn't cut-out for full-blown 24/7 enterprise messaging. I wonder if they will find the Storm to be the perfect compromise, or if they'll still require a proper keyboard on which to type?

 

Personally, I will be more than happy to continue my love affair with the iPhone. It is the best mobile device I have ever owned. I'll even continue to overlook the paltry battery life, at least for the time being. Oh, looks like it needs its’ daily charge, right now.