Research In Motion aims to take smartphone market by Storm

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Sumi Das: Hello, I'm Sumi Das for ZDNet, here with our senior editor, Sam Diaz. Sam, as always, thank you for being with us.

Sam Diaz: Sure.

Sumi Das: Okay, so we finally have a date for when the BlackBerry Storm is going to hit the market. Tell us when that is.

Sam Diaz: That's right. November 21st is the big date. And that's a big deal because for the longest time Verizon had just been saying, "Coming soon. Coming soon." And they've finally given us the -- a date. People are really excited about it. Haven't seen this much excitement around a mobile phone since the original iPhone came out. So yeah, it's a very exciting time.

Sumi Das: And a lot of people are saying that this is BlackBerry's answer to the iPhone, but there are some significant differences between the two phones.

Sam Diaz: That's right. And for the most part, those differences favor the BlackBerry.

Sumi Das: Okay.

Sam Diaz: The Storm. Okay? So they've get some key features in there that iPhone users have been asking for. Things like removable battery. You can do that with the Storm. The ability to add an SD card to expand that capacity. Really big deal for anybody who's looking at, you know, adding music or photos to their phone. Things like -- and it's actually really silly, but it's very small, but really huge is cut and paste.

Sumi Das: I hear a lot of iPhone users complaining about that.

Sam Diaz: That's right. A lot of iPhone users want the cut and paste feature, and it's just not there. Of course, on the BlackBerry it is.

Sumi Das: Video.

Sam Diaz: Video. That's right. The ability to shoot video. Now, that's coming for the iPhone.

Sumi Das: Sure.

Sam Diaz: But out of the gate --

Sumi Das: Not there yet.

Sam Diaz: -- the Storm's gonna have it right out of the gate. It's not there for the iPhone yet. Now on the other side of it, one big feature that the storm does not have that the iPhone has is Wi-Fi. And that becomes really important because increasingly, these devices are being viewed as more like mobile computers, and if you're gonna be computing on something like this, Wi-Fi's essential.

Sumi Das: It's totally essential.

Sam Diaz: Yeah. You have to have it.

Sumi Das: Okay, so what's at stake here for these companies?

Sam Diaz: Well, for Verizon, Verizon's very concerned about the churn rate, the number of customers that have been leaving the network to go join AT&T because, really, that's the only place where you can get the iPhone. For RIM, you know, it's been very aggressive about trying to break into a consumer market. You know, the BlackBerry has always been sort of corporate-like.

Sumi Das: Mm-hmm.

Sam Diaz: And so they've been trying to break into a consumer market. Products like the Pearl, and the Bold, and the Curve, and of course, now the Storm really meant to attract mainstream users, not so much the suit and tie type that would normally be tapping out just email. So there's a lot on the line here. I think this is really where you're seeing Apple and AT&T on the iPhone side going head-to-head with RIM and Verizon on the Storm side.

Sumi Das: And mainstream users, as you call them, might be more attracted to the fact that it's Verizon.

Sam Diaz: That's right. I mean despite all the advertising and the marketing that you hear, the reputation out there is that the Verizon network is still much stronger and more reliable than the AT&T network. And it's kept a lot of people from switching. I know that I put out my own blog post in a poll awhile back, talking about making the switch. You know, I'm a Verizon customer, and I have a BlackBerry, and I've been thinking about making the iPhone switch. Decided to hold off a little bit. The readers convinced me -- by a very small majority, but they did convince me -- to not fall into the iPhone hype yet, and give the Storm a chance.

Sumi Das: Ah, so you're listening to your readers?

Sam Diaz: I am listening to my readers, yes.

Sumi Das: And does that mean that you're gonna go out and buy a Storm?

Sam Diaz: Well, if I say that here, I guess you're gonna have to kind of hold me to that, right?

Sumi Das: Yes, we will.

Sam Diaz: Okay.

Sumi Das: Sam, thanks so much.

Sam Diaz: Sure. Thank you.

Sumi Das: For all the latest, you can head to blogs.zdnet.com.

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