The Next Web

I almost feel sorry for the Blackberry Storm…

By Boris
November 29, 2008
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The Blackberry Storm is getting a lot of criticism around the web. The most notable is the rant by David Pogue over at the New York Times. His story titled “No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry?” is so filled with frustration, anger and disappointment that I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the poor PR managers at Research in Motion. I can highly recommend reading it.

Here is one of many videos showing an iPhone and Blackberry Storm showdown. This one compares load times of a new websites on both devices in real time. Unfortunately for RIM the iPhone wins this one too.

Boris Serial Internet Entrepreneur
Serial entrepreneur and founder of V3 Redirect Services (sold), HubHop Wireless Internet Provider (sold), TwitterCounter.com, PressDoc & The Next Web. Boris is very active on Twitter and would love it if you started following him @Boris.

  • Hi guys,

    I'm a longstanding BlackBerry user and fan. I mainly use my BlackBerry to send/receive e-mails and seldom phone/get phoned.

    I always smiled about all the smart phones coming to market, without posing a threat to BlackBerry, for one reason only, namely all were always phones in the first place and e-mail devices in the second (or in some instances even fourth) place.

    Put another way, they never took BlackBerry on on its strong point, namely its e-mail sending/receiving ability.

    That was, to me, Blackberry's strength and saving grace in an ever-more-competitive market.

    When I heard about the Storm, I stormed down to the shop to "test-drive" the thing.

    And then I couldn't believe it, when I saw that BlackBerry voluntarily...on its own...did away with its only saving grace, its only strength, which is its e-mail sending/receiving ability.

    This is to me a fatastic case study of "commercial suicide". I'm sure the suicide of BlackBerry by its own volition will in future be study material at business schools.
  • Hi Frank & Shane! Of course this test is far from scientific or fair. It is as much a test of different networks as different hardware. But at least you get an idea...
  • Shane
    The test on Cnet is a bit flawed. As stated, the iPhone goes to a mobile version while the Storm goes to the full version.

    Also, he claims the Storm is smart by loading the full version but it's all up to the server whether it serves the full or mobile version.

    Seems CNet has set up an iPhone optimized site but not a generic mobile site. Which is unfortunate.

    And then of course vice-versa for the Engadget test.
  • Rob
    CNET is loading a iPhone specific version, so its not really fair. Usually on sites like that you can click a link to load the full version.

    Either way, it seems like the iPhone is loading the pages at a more reasonable rate and displaying the data as it gets it, while the storm is displaying it all the once.
  • Very scientific approach this movie...

    Loading websites from bookmarks will probably activate some caching on the iPhone. Then there is a difference in mobile/non-mobile sites which absolutely cannot be compared in speed.

    I'm not saying the Storm is so much better or worst, but this test is rather useless...

    Though the NY Times article does make sense.
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