Verizon Storm ship-by date pushed up to December 8th
Whatever the case with the BlackBerry Storm OS / Sticker debacle from Verizon, it looks like everything is going to be ironed out a bit ahead of schedule. Verizon’s website now shows an online order shipment date by December 8th, bumped up slightly from the previous date of December 15th. The listing on the site still shows the Storm as having limited availability, though it’s hard to say if we’re talking real limited availability or marketing limited availability. Limited availability of your most highly-anticipated handset release of the year, right before the holidays? Either way, if you’re in the market for a Storm but the idea of it not shipping until the 15th gave you pause, knowing that it will ship out a week earlier might give you the push you need. As an aside, Storm owners who don’t already know should keep their eyes on this site for OS downloads. The current OS version is available now and perhaps we’ll get lucky and find an update there within the next few weeks.
Thanks, Ryan and Booyah!
How many bad reviews does it take for people to realize this device is a disaster?
This device is awesome. Of course its different and takes some getting used to but its clearly a superior device
What’s going on with store availability?
meeno01, so what’s your job title over there at RIM/VZW?
The Storm is complete garbage. Bring on the Niagara!
I wonder how many of the bashers actually have the Storm. I have it and haven’t had a problem yet. Its so much easier to complain isn’t it? Its a great phone. Nothing is perfect. This device is only gonna get better.
Berry Zito, while reviews are always helpful, the best thing to do is play with the device.
Did Rimm ship out a buggy OS. Absolutely. But some of the other complaints are really stupid.
1) The screen wiggles. Oh Noes! it moves a half a millimeter vertically and horizontally. This is called PLAY. Learn it love it.
2) There’s a gap and dirt will get in! Don’t work in a factory stuffing pillows, otherwise you’re fine.
3) @BG those tiny dots for the digitizer? Let me know what you’re smoking so I can see them too.
The phone can be a bit sluggish, and the accelerometer can be a bit indecisive if held at 45 degrees. Other than that, it’s a OS update away from being a kick ass device.
Man up nancies
“Further investigation, he says, showed that the stores only received 40 to 100 units each, and that disappointed customers were told they could order online but wouldn’t get their Storms until Dec. 15 — too late to count in RIM’s third quarter sales.”
I played with the Storm yesterday and have to say that it is a great device. It is NOT a disaster (although the Verizon launch is). It is definitely a big contender in today’s smartphone market! Features such as the BB messenger, BB enterprise, full view and edit of MS docs, a removable battery, external memory and a 3.2 MP flash/auto-focus camera can’t be beat! It also allows you to customize your touch, swipe and key rates!! Of course, its not perfect (e.g. no Wi-Fi) but nothing is….not even the iPhone if you recall.
I “bought” this devise…technically. They took my money and gave me a sales slip but I am starting to wonder if the thing really exists. Big Foot…Tooth Fairy…Unicorns…and now the Blackberry Storm.
I want my freaking phone so I can bitch about it too!
@jsos and Techranter
I was on the pre-order for the Storm and the first to pick mine up Friday morning. Trust me I was incredibly excited for this phone…so much so that I was happy to pay the $175 extortion to ATT to break my contract. I have always been a Blackberry fan. Unfortunately the Storm ruins what I like best about Blackberry (fast, efficient interface and reliability) and forgot to take advantage of the touchscreen (its basically a trackball UI without the trackball). I spent 3 full days trying to talk myself into keeping it but finally on Sunday afternoon I bought an iPhone and took the Storm back. The things I really couldn’t stand:
- Unlocking the screen takes close to 10 seconds every time. Always lights up in landscape and takes ~5 seconds to shift to portrait so I can enter my password. As someone who habitually locks my phone when not using it this is horribly annoying
- Browser is terrible. Click on a link and the screen thinks its a double tap and zooms in. Lots of buttons cant be clicked. The options menu is painful to navigate with your finger unless you make the font obnoxiously large. If I’m going to sacrifice typing speed to have a big screen, I want a good browsing experience. Oh and before you tell me to download Opera…I did…and its still 10% as usable as Safari on the iphone.
- SurePress slows you down. I am very fast on SureType but thanks to one big button under the screen I have to slow down for letters to register.
There were other things that bothered me and of course the phone has some strong points as well but in general it is incredibly frustrating to use. The only people I can imagine liking this phone are those who have never had a blackberry, never had an iphone or ipod touch, type slowly and have lots of patience. I don’t fit that profile and as such was seriously disappointed.
If you ordered your Storm Friday before 2 you should be able to call cstmr service and get your tracking number now. I ordered mine Fri. around 11:30 am and just got my fed-ex #. It will be delivered tomorrow.
I have used four storms at 2 different Verizon shops and I would call it a disaster for what it’s supposed to do. I am a long time BB business user who uses an iPod touch on WiFi for my fun personal applications. The Storm’s lag is unacceptable, the accelarometer is crap, all four I tested crashed while using the browswer and took several minutes to reboot after a hard reset, and when they did work, the web page rendering was not good. So, without even getting into usability for a power user on email, in it’s current state it appears to be the worst of compromises — it’s not a good blackberry and it’s not a good iPhone competitor. What exactly is the market supposed to be? In any event, I really hope the bugs get resolved, because I had high hopes and every intention of upgrading my 2 year old 8703.
The Storm is a disaster and I actually have been using it the last 4 days and I know what im talking about here.
I handle the I.T. for our corporation and I deal with BlackBerry’s every day, usually 10-20 issues a day from various devices.
Yes the Storm has alot of “cool” features but WHAT good are any of them if they input mechanism (keyboard) sucks!
I found myself spending more time trying to correct simple typos and accidentaly exiting out of screens than actually getting anything done.
Conclusion:
For a 15-16 year old kid, great device, they will love it, if you actually work for a living and rely on your email, then you will soon see its not a effective tool and actually slows you down, not to mention the device is just slow and sluggish outside of the horrible typing interface.
Unfortunatly im tired of Verizon and their crippling of devices, today im switching over to the Bold, from what i hear and what ive seen that is the device to have if your a mobile “professional”.
My credit card was charged. VZW claims that means the device should ship shortly. we’ll see
Everything you just mentioned hits the nail on the head, the opening up in landscape mode and password entry is a nightmare, i thought it was just me!
I think this was all a marketing scheme on the part of RIM and Verizon to create a pent-up demand for these devices starting on black Friday and into the holiday shopping season.
Only the true crackberries and techies knew enough about them and wanted one on day one, but that’s not good enough for a major product launch. Now that the media has shown the lines at stores, quoted stores as selling out immediately, and so on, more people looking for a holiday gift or new toy for themselves know about the “hottest” tech thing going– the BlackBerry Storm, and the hunt is on to get one.
Orders placed on-line seem to be filling much, much faster than originally quoted and that tells me there is stock available and more than at a RIM factory production rate availability.
Im not defending a buggy device being shipped out. But I dont think any of you can say that RIM wil not have these issues hashed out in the next release.
Im confident that the next update will make this phone rock solid
No one has mentioned anything about the “phone” part of the device. Anything? It IS a phone, right? Pretty sure it is…
It is a phone, and i forgot to mention the call quality is the worst ive seen on any BlackBerry, its very high pitched and crackily, coming from the 8830…
High pitched and crackily?? Sure that’s just not how your gf sounds??
Dude…before you start swinging..it’s just a joke. nothing but love.
They moved the shipment date up since demand is down. Simple supply and demand issues. As more people find out that the phone is buggy and that they cannot buy in the store, the number of people ordering is drying up.
Bad news for early adopters is that if they do not sell a couple of million phones by January, then the app store will not have any developers which means no programs to use and no reason for new people to buy the phone.
Ordered online Friday at 10am and was just told by CS that it won’t be shipping until 12/8. Was originally told it would ship by today at the latest. Seems to me these phones are just being held for a firmware update in early December and that there really isn’t any issue with the actual number of units.
I ordered mine on Friday the 21st after 2PM and my estimated delivery date is still December 5th. Hopefully I can get it in the beginning of the week.
I had a speaker issue with my Storm and they informed me late last night that it would not ship until 12/8.
I hear all of the complaints about this phone, but remember this is a first version of the product. Every, and I mean every, 1st version of a software or hardware device has bugs. That is just the way it is. All of the so-called “IT experts” here should know better than to slam a V1 product.
Just like the iphone, this phone is not made for the hardcore IT person so please stop making that assumption. I challenge anyone to tell me that the iphone is a corporate standard at any Fortune 500 company.
Let’s just be thankful that we have new technology coming out all the time that we review and have fun with!
Thats the whole problem, the BlackBerry is a corporate tool, not a kids playtoy like it has been marketed. Well i guess in this situatin it is somewhat of a toy, im a die hard RIM guy and this is just a plain dissapoint, this phone was being tested for the last year, some of the “bugs” are just from the fundamental structure of the phone and will never be “worked out” with a software revision. I should have went with my gut feeling on this one. 6 months from now ill put this phone against my original 8830 anyday, and guess who will be more productive? This phone reminds me of a bad Windows Mobile device.