The real story behind the Verizon BlackBerry Storm OS?
I want to preface this by saying that the following statements are my opinions and hypotheses, and have not be confirmed nor denied by any of sources of mine or official contacts at either corporation. It should serve as a nice little “conspiracy theory,” though. Here’s the deal:
- When we met with Verizon and RIM about the Storm, we asked about the software version. They confirmed it to be 4.7.0.65. We had heard otherwise, just like most of you, and didn’t understand why that OS version was so low when versions up to .90 were being talked about, and some demo units in stores showing .75 or higher.
- We believed this to be a non-final OS and was partly why we thought the OS would get better before release.
- We reported of a Storm shortage last night because of a last minute glitch.
- We think that 4.7.0.82, the version of the Storm box I got from Verizon directly was the cause of the glitch, and instead of a new version being flashed on Storms, what they were in fact doing was downgrading the OS to 4.7.0.65.
Now, why would we say that Verizon has downgraded these units? Do we know this for a fact? Absolutely not, and we said that above. None of this has been confirmed to us at all, but here’s the kicker… check on your Verizon BlackBerry Storm box where the product label is. It should say Version: 4.7.0.65, right? Well, after looking at a box from a Verizon store just now, I noticed a couple layers of stickers. I decided to peel those off, and what did I find? A product label underneath with version 4.7.0.82! So, they realized that there was possibly a huge security vulnerability they couldn’t fix in time, started flashing the units with the .65 software in order to not miss the release date, thus the cause of the shortages, the limited stock, and the direct fulfillment units not shipping until December the 5th. Go ahead, you know you want to peel back those product labels with yellow stickers! Let us know in the comments, ok? The pictures are after the break!
And there back! The last couple of days were nice without all of the crazies yelling bias and all the other garbage.
Should of known it wouldnt last long.
hm odd observation actually. Haven’t checked my box yet but as I was going to leave this morning I stopped by the tech area and asked if there was a OS upgrade available yet. He told me they were there all the previous night reflashing the OS and that it was good to go. Much to my surprise getting home and seeing .65 still as the OS. This may just be as big as the JFK assassination or the Paul Is Dead conspiracy!
well dont forget ATT is getting this phone in Feb2009. confirmed by an ATT rep Sunday
I’m super unbiased when it comes to reviewing phones, but this thing was a piece of crap.
I had to reboot it twice while activating it for a customer because the keyboard just wasn’t working. And no it wasn’t due to it provisioning.
Hope the new build works out for it, I wouldn’t trade my G1 for it if you paid me.
BGR is quickly becoming my favorite blog. I tried to get a storm today, no luck. In hindsight it probably was better i didnt.
This is unfortunately a major screw up by Verizon, and unfortunately badly affects RIM. First impressions are the ones that last.
Out of curiosity, I stopped by a new Verizon store in Chicago this evening. They had two storms left for sale (apparently phone orders that weren’t collected), and two storms out for demo. The demo storms had 4.0.61 on, which surprised me as it was an OS release I had never seen.
While I was fooling around with one of the demo units, a number of people came and went, playing with the other unit. All of them commented on how slow the OS was. The poor in store rep had a bunch of excuses, like “people have been playing with it all day, and there are a lot of programs running in the background slowing it down”. Needless to say, they got no takers for their two in stock for sale units.
I cannot being to imagine how many sales RIM and Verizon lost today from folks that tried the phone, and then canceled the order, or decided against a purchase, and then went on to tell others the storm sucks
@ lula: The fact that you used an store rep as your source for future phone releases tells me that your information is not credible. Store reps rarely, if ever, know much more about future phone releases than we do. Actually, we tend to be the most informed because we do our own research. This ATT rep you spoke to was doing little more than trying to keep you with ATT.
I went to a store in Boston just to play with the demo version (I don’t believe in buying the first of any new model), and the sales rep was unabashedly telling all buyers that the OS was temporary and an upgrade would be pushed automatically to all phones in two weeks. As an aside, the five stores in Boston got 120 units each and were all sold out within the first half hour of opening. More expected Tuesday. I thought it was fun to play with but I need physical keys, it lends itself to typing while driving.
BG do not be alarmed. Please stay in your seat. The Verizon Ninja’s are already in the room. We are sorry having to “retire” your blog so early. We really do enjoy your “post” What was the sound you say? CAN YOU HEAR US NOW…
Awesome catch BG!
This could have been a great launch but Big Red has dropped and buried this ball.
RIM finally gets to use the OTA OS upgrade! Woo!
my peoples picked up their Storm today from CC. after he got it and got it activated, he was told to run to a VZ corp. store to get the firmware updated. he said some of the packages had older firmware and they just came out with a new version today. i’ll try to find out what version they’re on…or if that rep was bullshittin…
Makes a whole lotta sense considering the phone sitting on the table in front of me is a major disappointment. First time I tried to use the camera the thing bricked. Had to pull the battery. The BG review was spot on regarding the interface. You basically have a UI built for a trackball but you have your finger to do the work and trust me it is much less efficient than that little ball. I was very excited for this device but I will be taking it back tomorrow and getting an iphone or a bold. The fact that Verizon couldn’t activate the thing all day didn’t help either. This is a good phone for first time blackberry users…otherwise you’ll be disappointed.
I just hate companies that rather than wait to release a product once it’s passed quality control, just go ahead and release crap to make a marketing date.
I was an early adapter for the iPhone 3G…
The iPhone 2.0 software was pretty much a complete disaster. It made MICROSOFT Shine!
Software 2.0.1 and 2.0.2 didn’t do much either… Still a mess!
Come September (3 months after launch) 2.1 comes out – much better but still not good enough based on Apple’s track record!
Safari crashes, 3G issues (who is to blame… Carrier or Apple? – no comment), call drops, long delays for calls to connect…
November 21st – 5 mths after and 2.2 comes out – much better…
So what do I have to say? Given Apple screwed up many times over… Blackberry is no worse than Apple… Given this is Apple’s second touch device… and COUNTLESS firmwares….. Blackberry ain’t doing so BAD!
I can assure you…. when the bugs get worked out – within the 5 mth time frame Apple took… it could be a stellar phone…
Don’t Bash Blackberry… They are trying… And so is Apple…. Heck, at least we got 2.2 with stuff we didn’t ask for…. Things like MMS, VIDEO and COPY AND PASTE that everyone wants – we can’t have… The basic 9.99$ Samsung has it though!
Why did I buy an iPhone? BECAUSE I WANT TOUCH! Hopefully iPhone 3.0 will address the concerns of the failed 2.x.x failed series!
Get the iPhone. It’s great!
It’s funny, to me, that the fanboys are acting like this is some BG hit piece on Verizon.
Sorry guys. I just don’t see it. He just stated his opinions, and we wasn’t even being snide about it.
If BG’s theory is right, what’s so bad about it? It’s not like this would be the first buggy phone to ever get released, and at least Verizon used their better judgment and didn’t release it with some major security flaw.
I use a Blackberry, on Verizon, but I don’t view them as some infallible entity. It’s a fucking cellphone carrier. Why do you people give a shit what people say about them? The way some of you morons post, you’d think BG just slapped your mom or something.
“Typing while driving.”
Get a life.
iPhones are GREAT!
good work BG, site needs more of these investigative stories.
Compared to what?? My Treo does more than the iphone. What, no IM? What, no mms? What, no background notifications? Hmmmmmm…..but it’s great. Ummmm…..yea…..ok.
au contraire monfrere—-this storm is a VZW exclusive.—————————– Sorry to say, Mine works Great!
iphone is great… if u dont have problems!
every single person i know has had there phone replaced at least once! I have yet to find a person with an iPhone that is on there first unit…
My brother is on his 3rd iphone unit.
sprint for life u suckers verizon should just sell phones with just talk and text like tracphone since there coverage is so great instead they sell broke up data phones like the storm
Makes a lot of sense, but I’m up for any decent conspiracy theory. I’m still glad I got one. I’ll just do the update when it’s available. It does have some bugs, but nothing that will prevent me from using it for a few weeks until the update is ready. They HAD to bring this thing to market this week. It’s only 4 weeks till Christmas. Anyone that knows anything about the retail business knows the value of every day from now until Dec 24th.