BlackBerry Plans to Storm Smartphone Market

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The upcoming BlackBerry Storm is going head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone by boasting a touchscreen technology with a twist. The Storm lets you push down on the screen like you would with a tactile button. The device is expected to debut in late 2008.

Digital Journal – Research in Motion isn’t taking the iPhone surge lying down. It recently announced details about its upcoming BlackBerry, dubbed Storm. Due to hit shelves in North America some time later this year at an unspecified price, the Storm is RIM’s latest attempt to forge new ground in the smartphone market.

What’s giving the Storm some noteworthy buzz? Its touchscreen is unique, allowing you to select application or enter text by pushing down on the screen like any other button. ClickThrough, as this technology has been called, is a novel feature: you can press on the screen and hear a satisfying “click” and the screen sinks into the casing slightly. This idea avoids problems on other touchscreens where you might accidentally select something when your finger slips to the side.

A small cursor follows your finger as you navigate on the Storm’s 3.25-inch high-res touchscreen. The cursor, similar to a mouse arrow, hovers over your selection and you push down on the screen to open it. Also, a virtual keyboard lights up letters when you tap them so you’ll know if you typed correctly.

The Storm boasts other impressive features: dual-mode functionality, so it can work on both CDMA and GSM networks; support for 3G networks for fast Web connections; 128MB of flash memory and 1GB of onboard memory; a 3.2-megapixel camera with video capture; a removable battery touting 15 days in standby mode and 6 hours talk time; Bluetooth 2.0 support; and integrated GPS. Once it launches, the Storm will let you download apps from its yet-to-be-released App Center.

The Storm will be available through Verizon in the U.S. and through Telus in Canada, at first. The device may launch later with other Canadian carriers such as Rogers, but there is no confirmation on availability.

Tammy Scott, vice president of communications and marketing at Telus, told DigitalJournal.com in an interview the Storm will appeal to more than just business users. “This is the perfect package of a communication and multimedia device,” she said. “The Storm offers the best of both worlds.”

RIM is looking for a winner after its stock plunged in September. But analysts are hopeful RIM can turn around its fortunes; one observer said recently both Apple and RIM have created a “compelling ecosystem of devices applications, services and content that they are subsequently monetizing into a recurring revenue stream.”