by Robb Dunewood on November 4, 2009 · 10 comments
An interesting report from ComScore on Touchscreen Mobile Phone Adoption came out yesterday and a few things in the report kind of surprised me.
Touchscreen mobile phone adoption grew at a blistering rate up 159%. Nothing really shocking about that.
The iPhone dominates the market with 32.9% market share. Yeah, yeah… Sounds about right.
The BlackBerry sits in 4th place with 7% of the market, only 1.7% behind the number 2 LG Dare and 0.8% behind the 3rd place LG Voyager. Completely wasn’t expecting that.
Of the 10 devices listed, the BlackBerry Storm received the most bad press, deservedly so, by a long shot. For the Storm to come in 4th when it was such a bad device at launch and having been on the market for a lot less time than the three devices in front of it was more than just surprising. It was actually a bit shocking.
This is probably due to the strength of the BlackBerry brand because no one else could have had a device suck that much, yet sell so well. Hopefully the BlackBerry Storm2 will do better by the brand than did it’s predecessor. Every report that I’ve heard about the BlackBerry Storm2 goes something like, “You know, it’s really not that bad“. If that sentiment remains I think RIM will view the BlackBerry Storm2 as a success.
If you are a BlackBerry Storm user you may have already noticed a new installer icon on your device. Verizon partnered with Microsoft and is pushing Bing out to the BlackBerry Storm. Bing comes pre-installed on the BlackBerry Storm2, but, not wanting original Storm users feeling left out, Verizon is making sure that everyone with a touchscreen BlackBerry bearing the Verizon logo is included.
For those of you that don’t want Bing on your BlackBerry Storm simply hide the installer icon. Unfortunately you cannot delete the icon which kind of sucks, however, the space it takes up is negligible. RIM, you should really give users the ability to delete unwanted carrier pushed installer icons. Not doing so really ticks people off and, right now, you need all the good will towards your brand as you can get.
by Robb Dunewood on October 27, 2009 · 22 comments
Verizon’s official announcement of the the BlackBerry Storm2 9550 wasn’t the only big BlackBerry news coming out of the largest wireless company in the nation today. They’ve also released BlackBerry OS 5.0.0.328 for the BlackBerry Storm 9530.
A little credit goes to Verizon for actually releasing OS 5 for the BlackBerry Storm before releasing the BlackBerry Storm2. I am sure that a bunch of head to head BlackBerry Storm with OS 5.0.0.328 vs. BlackBerry Storm2 reviews will hit the web in the next 24 hours or so, but we’ve heard that even though the Storm2 has clear hardware advantages over the original Storm, the new OS 5 update gives the original Storm many of the same OS enhancements coming in the Storm2.
You can find a list of some of the OS 5.0.0.328 enhancements after the jump.
by Robb Dunewood on September 18, 2009 · 0 comments
Why do you love your BlackBerry Storm? Share your story for a chance to win a 3-day trip to New York City, a CES VIP experience in Las Vegaa, or $7100 cash.
All you have to do is enter a picture with a caption, a video no longer than 2 minutes, or a blog post 1000 words or less telling the world why you love your BlackBerry Storm and followers can vote on which entry they like the most.
by Robb Dunewood on September 3, 2009 · 17 comments
Have a BlackBerry Storm 9500 or 9530 and want to update your OS beyond what is currently available? Well, you are in luck. OS 4.7.0.173 for the BlackBerry Storm 9500 and OS 4.7.0.167 for the BlackBerry Storm 9530 have been leaked and can be found online at via the links below.
We know that there are OS 5 leaks that have come out for both devices, however, they both definitely have some quirks that still need to be worked out. We haven’t installed 4.7.0.167 on our BlackBerry Storm 9530, so, we cannot personally vouch for this leak, but we can say that we haven’t heard anything negative about it.
If you decide to try out one of these leaked Storm OS updates, come back and let us know how it works for you on your device.
Verizon is now offering the BlackBerry Storm 9530 for $49.99 on a 2-year service plan. This is 25% of what the device went for less than a year ago. The big takeaway for us, however, is that that Verizon often slashes prices on older model BlackBerry devices when they are clearing out inventory to make way for new devices.
There have been rumors floating around that the BlackBerry Storm will be available in the mid to late October time frame. I would be willing to bet that the we start to see so of Verizon’s resellers cutting the price of the BlackBerry Storm down to zero…
This video walk-through of leaked OS 5.0.0.191 for the BlackBerry Storm 9530 shows a lot promise of what is to come when when RIM and Verizon release OS 5 for the BlakcBerry Storm. Application support is still kind of sketchy, so, we’ll be sticking with 4.7 for now, however, if you just can’t wait to get your hands on 5.0.0.191, you can download it at the link below.
Verizon has finally decided to offer its V Cast Video Service on the BlackBerry Storm. Starting today, Verizon BlackBerry Storm users with unlimited data plans can add V Cast Video to their devices for $10 per month.
BlackBerry Storm users can find V CAST Videos by going to the VZ Today link in their browsers, clicking on Get Apps, and selecting V CAST Videos to download the application.
If you aren’t a BlackBerry Storm use, but, still want to get V Vast videos on your device, it looks like it may just be a matter of time. The press release says clearly that V Cast videos would be first available on the Storm, however, it didn’t say anything about the Storm being the only BlackBerry device that the service would be offered on.
