Vodafone botches Blackberry Storm launch, Verizon Wireless says nothing
Our buddies across the pond in the UK, awoke this morning to some great news. Vodafone, via an official press release, launched the Blackberry Storm and announced that it will be available on November 14th. Don’t get too excited as that launch date, nary a few hours old, may have already been pushed back to November 18th. Vodafone’s own Storm pre-order page has been updated to reflect the November 18th date and rumors bouncing around the Vodafone forums also suggest a delay. What is Vodafone doing to us? Adding to the whole Storm debacle is Verizon Wireless who also issued a press release on Thursday and said absolutely NOTHING new about its Blackberry Storm. No launch date, no pricing, just a rehash of how awesome the Storm is. Unbelievable. Is this turning into the world’s worst launch or what?
Read (Vodafone Press Release)
Read (Vodafone Pre-Order)
Read (Verizon Press Release)
Not as bad as the bolds release, thought it was worth the wait.
I always thought that VZW had a long and storied history of fucking up their product releases.
BG – When are we going to find out that you’ve actually had a Storm for the last 2 months, and you’ve got a brilliant, comprehensive review for all of us who are debating getting it?
No it’s not a bad launch. It’s just your time of the month again.
Review the Storm and get it over with already. Jesus Christ. Don’t make me come over there with my Curve and cause havoc.
I noticed on the standard features section, it showed that the Vodafone Storm does not come with a memory card. The VZW one is supposed to have an 8gb card…is this correct?
Kelly I know you just didn’t say that when the Bold just dropped 2 days ago…let’s be serious now.
@ Dalton the 8gb sd card is with Verizon only I believe.
And BG I believe you’ve had the storm already also lol
Seriously, what’s Verizon’s deal? I need one piece of information… RELEASE DATE!
Lol… shhhhhh.
@MerlynNY
There is no release date yet is because there is no release date yet. The phone has not been approved by VZW’s engineers. People can claim release dates all they want but they are only internal targets, and the most recent one is last week of November/very early December. God help Verizon if they miss Black Friday.
WAIT GUYS! I KNOW WHY THE STORM IS DELAYED! IT’S BECAUSE STEVE JOBS CALLED THE CEO OF VERIZON AND SAID TO DELAY IT SO THEY COULD SELL MORE IPHONES! IT’S A CONSPIRACY!!!!!
Review please???
Kelly,
So, if I read the press release completely it says “Customers who want to be the first in the UK to have a BlackBerry Storm can PRE-ORDER … from November 14″
Um, nowhere does it say you’ll get your Storm on the 14th, so I really don’t see the inconsistency here. “Launch” dates are different from “delivery” dates. If someone orders this device on the 14th, a Friday, it seems reasonable that it will be delivered around the 18th.
My opinion is your post needs to be revised if you truly believe in the value of facts.
Is it just me, or does every recent BlackBerry release have some kind of issue or confusion associated with it? Makes you wonder if it’s the carrier or if it’s RIM.
Alrighty, tired of waiting now… What’s the latest date for the Omnia release for VZW?
@Canis
We’ll update it, but going on the site, as you can see from the above screen shot, it clearly says the Storm is available to buy starting on November 14th. That might mean pre-order, fine, but that’s a little unclear. You’re right though, we’ll update it.
Umm worst launch? Did we already forget the bold launch that AT&T delayed and delayed oh ya and delayed?
And as already mentioned the words order and delivery are different so in summary another fucked up article on bgr. Good job everybody
why make this into a big deal…
It’s a typo 4 days apart, nothings “botched”
@BG:
I agree the first paragraph you circled seems to indicate availability on the 14th, but in the next paragraph they make it clear that it is the start of pre-orders.
Thanks for looking at updating it.
I think beside the release date, isn’t more telling that the two biggest launches by RIM have been fucked up. Now what does that tell you? Two different carriers, same phone manufacturer. They want to keep market share, they need to continue to deliver excellent products, but more importantly, deliver excellent products on time.
@CanisMinor
ummmm – I think it clearly says you can BUY it on the 14th. Since we know they just said you can buy it on the 14th, we are letting you PREORDER it for now until the 14th.
What is so hard to understand?
Sorry, but BGR is right on this one.
I think it is pretty obvious that Verizon will not be releasing the Storm on time. Verizon has the longest technical approval time of all the major carriers. The is probably why they generally have the BEST network and aside from Sprint the worst phone selection.
I’m sure that like Razr, Verizon is making sure they either cripple or monetize every useful feature of the phone. You may even have to pay to touch the screen.
Verizon’s really does have a great network its really a shame that they feel the need to cripple all their handsets.
Yesterday I spoke with several VZW stores in Raleigh, NC and they all said the release date is 11/22/08. They also made a point of telling me the extended hours they will be open that day. I was assured that this is not an internal projection and that the Storm will be shipped to them by the 19th, however there will not be any pre-ordering.
There is no error!!!
Nov. 14 is a Friday
2 (business days) day shipping
= Delivered on Tuesday the 18th.
It all makes sense…
I’ll agree… as a dedicted VZW customer and someone who has been following the Storm launch very closely it’s definitely turning into the world’s worst launch, or lack there of. I guess they hoped by not releasing an official launch date they could avoid this debacle but the repeated delay of the rumored launch dates are just as bad. Getting tired of waiting… might be time to look else where.
I am tired of waiting just like everyone else! However, I would rather wait and let them get the bugs worked out. I think we all remember another “phone” that launched on the exact day but needed to be delayed until a few issues we’re fixed. I own that phone and wish they had waited! It is hell on us to have to wait, but much rather wait than go through the trouble of waiting for updates and not mention BGR filled with HATE comments when BGR could be telling us other kewl info.
Be patient it will come, but damn I wish it would hurry!
Unfortunately
, we are all going to have to suck it up and just wait. If there was ever a phone worth this much stress, its this one. And I think a lot of us have got really tempermental waiting for this phone. Since when did we start constantly, overly critiquing BG. They are our special ninjas. Back off foo’s. Without them we’d be walking down the street and spot a hooker with a storm, and be all… WTF? Anyway, thanks BG for the latest update. Much appreciated