The BlackBerry Storm was supposed to be the proverbial iPhone killer … or at least it was supposed to give BlackBerry users another reason not to ditch their faithful mobile device for a shiny new Apple iPhone.
Something went wrong. Instead of the BlackBerry Storm becoming an iPhone killer, it appears that it may be a BlackBerry killer — at least for some customers who are irate about their experience with the new model, calling the touchscreen software sluggish and the performance of basic tasks slow and buggy.
According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, investors will be looking for clues on how the Storm fared when Verizon releases its fourth-quarter results Tuesday. Verizon Wireless is the exclusive U.S. carrier for the device.
Calm Before the Storm
Consider the hype. BlackBerry launched a marketing campaign that reportedly cost more than $100 million. Marketing raised awareness — the company reportedly sold about 500,000 units from Nov. 21 to Dec. 21 — but the buggy software and glitchy hardware are drawing the ire of the folks who purchased the Storm.
Despite the promising initial sales numbers, there were signs that the launch would be problematic before its debut in the form of rumors about a security flaw, but hundreds of thousands of consumers clamored to get their hands on the latest model anyway.
But perhaps the BlackBerry Storm’s issues are a non-issue. “Did they expect a perfect device?” asked Mike Disabato, a senior analyst at the Burton Group. “If they were expecting perfection out of BlackBerry on this one, they were sorely mistaken. There will be performance issues. That’s normal with complex devices like this. We saw similar complaints about the iPhone and the Android phone.”
Reviewing the Promise
The Storm was designed to appeal to both consumers and businesses. It combines the communications features, global connectivity,…