RIM’s SurePress wins “Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough” award
It’s no big secret that industry awards are often nothing more than a sham with awards earmarked here and there so that each company can walk away with another excuse for a bad press release. Some of the awards given out this past Tuesday at the Global Mobile Awards in Barcelona however, are making us scratch our heads more than usual. We don’t mean to single out any companies in particular, but when we saw that RIM’s SurePress got the nod for the Best Mobile Technology Breakthrough we were absolutely flabbergasted. Breakthrough in what way? And don’t give us that whole “precision typing and navigation enables a whole [sic] range of applications and features that have not been possible on a touchscreen mobile device” spin that some random PR intern cooked up.
We honestly struggled for a long time to think of a single application for the Storm that is better than any of the alternatives for other touchscreen handsets and we simply couldn’t do it. Now before some of you go off and start whining about how “BGR hates BlackBerry” you should know how untrue that is — there’s room enough in our hearts and on our belts for all phones. If you knew how many BlackBerry devices we’ve owned (and still own) collectively, you’d know how much we love the ‘Berry. The simple fact of the matter is the more time we spend with SurePress the more frustrated we get with it.
We would love for a company to come up with a touchscreen that issued the same sensation one feels when typing on a physical keypad, but until it happens with a capacitive keypad we plain and simply aren’t interested in it. Why? Because technology such as SurePress slows down even the most basic tasks. Typing a quick email on the Storm can be rather frustrating as half of the time typing any text requires that you momentarily pause while the screen “clicks” and resets to its natural position, thus allowing you to type the next character. It’s definitely something that some people can live with, but we bet you would be shocked at the number of times we hear from people who have a Storm along with other touchscreen devices like the Touch Diamond, Omnia or iPhone and say they can no longer stand the Storm because of its keypad.
If only RIM would have set its sights less on trying to outdo Apple (denying the fact that RIM wanted the Storm to be an “iPhone” killer is preposterous) with gimmicky technology. It could easily have selected a pre-existing capacitive touchscreen and created a heavily modified OS to better suit it. Had it chosen to do so, we think RIM would have hit one so hard it might have hit the lighting at Tigers Stadium. But instead RIM wasted time, money and credibility because it tried to do something that it just isn’t ready for or fully-capable of doing. It’s a damn shame too, because we were really rooting for RIM to have a unanimous hit on its hands.
Why…?
hahahaha…funny…who says you cant buy awards?
Probably because it’s something new, not because everyone just loves it to death.
I guess this is where “opinion” comes in. I actually like the click. Having used both, I just think it provides a more accurate way of navigation by being able to highlight before I click. Again… opinion.
I totally agree with BGR. The ridiculous gimmick is that you already typed the letter when you get the “feedback” of being on a certain key. The point is to know the key you’re on before you press it. Maybe if they made a textured screen or something, where indentations or bubbles or something correspond precisely to the touchscreen. Until then, BB should stick with their kick-ass qwerty keyboards.
Wow…
I think this is off base. The Storm had a crappy launch, and RIM deserves to suffer for that. The fact is, however, that the Storm has gotten significantly better with all the leaked OS’s. Surepress is a “Technology Breakthrough”, IMHO. It took a while to get used to, but I love it now. I don’t accidentally select the wrong letter/link nearly as much as I do on my ipod touch. In fact I’m always trying to click my ipod. I can type quickly on it; I think the difference between typing speed on my Storm and my ipod is negligible.
I own the Storm. It’s a piece of garbage.
There are SO many bugs, no one from either Verizon or RIM is taking responsibility for this paperweight.
Honestly, you have no idea how many times I have to click something in order for it to register.
No matter WHAT profile, personal settings, preinstalled settings, whatever – this damned phone won’t ring properly. I never hear SMS’s. This is my FIFTH Storm.
I waited and waited for someone, somewhere to fix this piece of crap. No word from RIM.
I was a DIE HARD blackberry fan before this phone. Now? I don’t think I’ll go back. When I take my phone out on the train, people ask me if it’s as bad as they heard. I go on about how horrible it is.
The phone constantly restarts, the battery life is horrendous, applications freeze, the forums aren’t that helpful – EVERYONE’S Storm reacts differently. I have no additional software on this thing.
So angry. RIM really bombed on this one. The suretype is actually the best part of the phone because any other input method is horribly inaccurate, and even the suretype sucks, so just imagine….
Ugh. I hate you RIM. I hate you Verizon. I wish there was a good phone out there on Verizon that is a world phone.
I hate this state of gadgets…there isn’t a “GREAT” all in one device. It’s so frustrating.
WOW we havent had some BGR Blackberry/Storm bashing in a while.
The click screen is great, the applications thus far on the storm, not so much.
Doesn’t Alpine have a patent on the tactile-touchscreen? They need to license that!
^Too bad you didn’t come to this conclusion within your 30-day trial period when you could’ve gone back to one of your previous Blackberrys that you were already comfortable with.
There must literally be something wrong with me, because I love the BB Storm. Once you get past the learning curve the damn thing is easy as hell use. I thought it was an outside the box idea as far as touch screens go, just because it doesn’t have a Jesus effect like the Iphone doesn’t mean it was a bad idea. Take an Iphone out its respected comfort zone and it becomes a glorified data bank, my Storm the work in progress that it is has done me well clickable touch screen an all.
Umm….are Tigers Stadium’s lights still up? They had it half demolished last time i checked. Somebodys a D-town suburbanite I gather. Keep up the great work BGR!
I was going to comment on this post via my Blackberry Storm, but typing it via the Sure(Annoying)Press keyboard would have taken a half hour…
WOW!! I’ve missed seeing the true iPhone love come out of iBGR… wait, no I haven’t. I too have an iPod Touch and Storm and apart from the lack of a good update from Verizon since, well… ever, the click screen is AMAZING! I get pissed at my touch for randomly selecting things when I am trying to scroll or not selecting things when I am trying to select. Although the click screen really doesn’t improve typing that much (which I think has more to do with apple’s keyboard software… expanding letter zones) it GREATLY improves the overall user interface. Selecting things on the storm is sooo much easier than on apple’s touch products (since we all know that is what iBGR is comparing the storm to) and just because the software is currently crap, does not mean that the hardware innovation should not go unrecognized. Unlike the “revolutionary” iPhone which had more to do with the simplified software than the hardware, the storm’s hardware is way more revolutionary than anything else that has hit the mobile industry in the last year. Whether that has more to do with the lack of amazing new products, or an actual good idea doesn’t matter. What matters is that there aren’t any other products that are more deserving of the award. Thanks iBGR for another horribly iOpinionated post.
rabble rabble rabble all BGR hates Blackberries- rabble rabble.
p.s. love the Tiger stadium reference and where’s cecil fielder when you need him.
reggie or rob deer would work too.
The complaints about the click are not in regards to navigation, playing media, highlighting text, that all actually works really well. the problem is with typing. All letters share the same spring, so you have to wait for the screen to pop back up before typing the next letter. This makes it a biatch to type on.
i actually like the surepress on the storm too. (and i in no way have any patronage with blackberry at all. never owned one) is it perfect? no. but it’s new.
No phone is perfect. Every phone has problems whether initially or problems that arise later on. Every time one phone manufacturer makes a phone another will build one to compete and beat the other phone. That is the phone game. The Storm is a revolutionary device in my opinion in the fact that it gives you the visual pleasing and ease to use of a touch, with included haptic feedback that isn’t a retarded vibration. The Storm is a great phone. Is it perfect? No. Is any phone perfect? Can any phone be perfect? Maybe somewhere in the distant future but no today, tomorrow, or next year. Everybody has needs and wants that suit them. Someone that wanted the pluses of a Blackberry with the ease of use they have the option of a Blackberry Storm. If they want a qwerty keypad with omitting the touch screen the have the Bold and the Curve 8900. I won’t compare the Storm to he iPhone but I do have a iPod Touch and I honestly can’t picture that begin my everyday phone and media player, with the cartoonish interface and constant browser crashes and inaccurate typing. When the Storm came otu it was quite buggy and many reviewers noted that in their online reviews. The storm has gotten better and will continue to get better but those that have already bashed the phone can’t see that fact.
GO RIM! *just just a bold yesterday* So how many awards did the iPhone win?
While I actually like the Storm and the surepress touchscreen, I fail to see how its a break through technology.
Two points:
1. I’ve worked for companies whose product has gotten an award and it was still in beta trials. Until the industry comes up with a true credible people’s choice award or some award from an independent panel of experts these magazines etc will continue to award products built by companies who take out large ads.
2. I am testing the Storm for our company and like it. the qwerty keyboard would work nicer if I had smaller fingers but what can you do. I love the navigation on the screen and the click does help me to make fewer mistakes while navigating. THe fact that it is a world device is also a big plus.
@BGR….what would you have chose to win the award? what other meaningful technology came out this year that deserved the award? oh…um…well…nothing!!!! yeah, that’s what i thought. why don’t you try thinking before you write your next article!
i could care less what anyone thinks about the storm, i love it. the click screen took all of a day to get used to but i can actually say that i like this phone way better than the (i know i’m going to get flamed for this) iphone crap. i’m more of a smartphone user than a feature phone user. most people who say bad things about the storm don’t own the storm. really, what does the iphone do that the storm cant? answer; nothing. what can the storm do that the iphone can’t? answer; a hell of a lot.
apple ball lickers kill me when they talk about the storm.
I like the SurePress feedback better than the iPhone’s hard surface. I do wish that the BB’s software was better suited to the phone and that they used multiple spring/sensors for the SurePress instead of one sensor in the middle… I think doing that would have required less screen travel.
But let’s talk about how the Storm’s copy/paste and background application abilities compare to other iPhones, err, I mean cell phones…