Try-phone from RIM a Storm in a teacup

Stan Beer
Monday, 08 December 2008 06:46

IT Industry - Market

Mobile phone manufacturers should hang their collective heads in shame. Almost two years after Steve Jobs showed off the revolutionary iPhone to the world at Macworld 2007, the best the likes of RIM, Nokia and others can come up with are pale me too imitations. The Blackberry Storm is no exception.

In less than 18 months since the first iPhone was released in the US, global sales have already ramped up to a rate approaching 30 million units a year, if you extrapolate the growing number of units sold each quarter. In the third quarter, according to some reports, iPhone sales surpassed those of the previous number one smartphone the Blackerry with almost 7 million units sold.

It is in this context that handset manufacturers appear to be scambling frantically to halt the erosion of their market share at the hands of Apple in what was previously their exclusive domain.

Every month or so for the past year, reports have surfaced about a supposed "iPhone killer" from one of the traditional manufacturers. Each time the product turns out to be a disappointment that falls way short of the mark.

The latest such attempt is the Blackberry Storm from Research In Motion. After having a play with one over the weekend side by side with an iPhone, I honestly believe this is one of the most pathetic attempts at a me-too product that I have ever seen.

From the moment you lay eyes on the Storm and get one in your hands it is obvious that there is no real innovation in this product. It is just a blatant and quite poor attempt to copy the look, feel and features of the iPhone.

Some may claim that copying a great product like the iPhone is not such a bad thing. That might be true if a manufacturer took the ideas of the iPhone and improved upon them. This sadly is not the case with the no-keypad, touch screen-only Blackerry Storm.

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