[bubbatech]

It has been said that 75% of the people purchasing this device are newbies to Blackberries like me. I think this is the key to why one hears such wildly variable opinions because the expectations of new BB users are very different from long-time BB types. I submit that the many of us newbies are using the 9530 for different reasons than many of the veterans of this forum. In my case, I use the 9530 for 1) information storage and retrieval - this includes memos, web content, and contacts; 2) placing and receiving phone calls; 3) messaging; and 4) Media. Note that this is *in order of importance*. This is key because I suspect most of the "veteran" BB users would have messaging as #1 AND #2, whereas many of us newbies think of it more as a phone/information/computing device - a function at which it very much excels compared to any other smartphone I have used (Kyo 7135 --> Treo 650 --> Motorola Q9 --> BB9530). There is no doubt in my mind that a physical keyboard is more efficient for heavy messaging (email/SMS) and therefore, if that is your priority, the 9530 is not the optimal choice. But if you want something that displays incoming emails, web-pages, memo info, and does a reasonably good job with phones calls with decent voice dialing etc, it is the best choice I have ever seen Verizon offer. So like anything else, when considering this device, is it an optimal choice? The answer is: it depends - what do you expect, what do you want?

[Terrigno]

I agree with you alot. Welcome to Crackberry also! You will have a great time here I garentee it. I remember, once I switched the the Blackberry, I never want a diffrent brand phone. I never had major problems with blackberry and evertyhing with it is very efficent. Also, The carrier matters to! Been with Verizon for a very long time and dont plan to leave. Calls are crystal clear and I get service just about everywhere I have went here in NJ. Welcome to the Storm Community. Rim hit a big one when they released this phone.

They got a lot of new people with it! Thats awesome!

[texas1]

I love my storm and I am a newbie I got it mainly because of the media things it offers but I was concerned if i would really have the use for everything a bb offers but I'm a 19 year old college student and I've found I can email my teachers my papers check my school email account for my finacil aid and such and I think having a bb really makes life easier and I wonder how I came so far without it I love it and couldn't imagine going back to a standard cell phone!

[asylvia]

welcome to crackberry

[texas1]

thanks almost everyone has been welcoming a bb is a lot to get use to

[surfnsmoke1403]

I got it mainly cuz I am growing up here and need a phone that can receive emails, schedule well, and etc.

all the other stuff is jus icing on the cake

tell ya the truth though I prob wouldnt have gotten a BB if I was still in school

[Tumaz04]

I'm also a noob to the BB community. I haven't even gotten my Storm yet, but i've been on this website for 3 or 4 months now following everything about it. Can't wait!

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[TheFarmer]

Welcome aboard, I agree with you've stated.

[castlerock611]

It does seem that the storm has brought in a wave a first time bb users,I think that's great and once you go"crack",you'll never go back,welcome to the forums

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[freebirds87]

I started on a 8330 Curve from Verizon and after 2 or 3 days time my mind was made up, I will only own Blackberry. Blackberry was my first smart phone, but I have used a lot of cell phones, and nothing even comes close to a Blackberry. Business, play, w/e, it's just such a "comfortable" phone to use.

I know you will read tons and tons of complaints about people not liking RIM or Verizon, w/e. I have never had a complaint towards either one. I feel like when you're dealing with new technology that hasn't been around but for a short time, things are going to be "iffy". RIM stands behind their products very well though, and updates will not only fix things, but it will make things that aren't broke, better. (like on my Curve for example)

Another thing that makes a Blackberry such a good phone is this community. Information, applications, downloads, etc.. make these phones so adaptable to many different lifestyles, it's almost impossible to not find the perfect fit for you and a Blackberry.

Welcome to the community!

[1stFighter]

Glad to know this website exists, it seem to have some excellent dialogue for troubleshooting and just plain sharing information. 1st Fighter out!

[Terrigno]

Besure to keep comming here to get your fix!

[1stFighter]

Glad to know this website exists, it seem to have some excellent dialogue for troubleshooting and just plain sharing information. 1st Fighter out!

"Chance favors the prepared mind and 2Whom much is given the same is expected"

[bigman2]

I would also think that, compared to every feature phone offered by VZW, the Storm blows them completely out of the water, even if it's a phone with .65 installed.

I'm also a first time BB owner. I found myself increasingly in situations where having access to my email on the go and a somewhat more robust calendar than my previous LG Dare offered. Lugging around my laptop just wasn't a viable long term solution without a cellular modem. The Storm delivers everything I want in spades, and so the fact that I can sync my Thunderbird calendar with my phone (via Google Calendar) and use Google Maps Mobile is just gravy. Same with the respectable media capabilities. I probably won't use them very often, but if I'm ever stuck in an airport or somewhere with nothing else to do...

The Storm is a great phone IMO. It's probably not for everyone, but what phone is?

[TrendyProfessional1]

First time BB owner; this phone is an all purpose phone. MP3 player which I didn't think I would use navigation, screen size/resolution. Email and attachments, nice video camera & reg camera. Finally used the alarm this morning for the first time nice backup to my regular alarm; very loud and clear; ability to open email attachments. This is the all in one phone that I have long been wating for. Not a first time smart phone owner. Also something about the name blackberry when u look at that phone; just sooooo professional looking. Plus the phone looks soooooo darn good. Yeah I will put up with the slight bugs.... Likin it lots; and this board has been a blast over all.
If I had a steady g/f she might be a little jealous of my phone.....

[adagio83]

I've been wanting a smart phone for a long time and just never found one that fit the mix of fun and functionality that I was hoping for. I've used Windows mobile PDAs before and used to carry one. It just became cumbersome to carry that (a beastly, older Compaq iPaq), a phone, my iPod (I'm an audio engineer - it's a necessity) and my laptop. I'm now a little older and find that a smart phone, while not a necessity, is definately the way to go.

When I began my research into smart phones I was looking into a Windows Mobile device but secretly wanting an iPhone. When I heard about the Storm I was intrigued, but I'd never really gotten the jist of the BB OS. Just not my thing. As far as I knew, BBs were mostly if not all corporate and there wasn't much point in trying to do anyting fun with them... But the Storm seemed different.

When I started researching it, I happened upon this website and a lot of information that I didn't have previously, and enough to make me go out and order the Storm the day it came out. It offers me pretty much everything I was looking for sans Wi-Fi (sadness, but oh well) and an IR transciever.

I'll live.

I needed something that could handle my scheduling which I can't always be in front of my laptop for, get me internet in places I would need it that didn't have Wi-Fi, weather information (for outside shows) and an abundance of messaging options with E-Mail (I fly on the keyboard, BTW).

This phone, while it has had it's faults, is as close as I could come to custom making one. Could it be more fun? Yeah, but it'll get there with new apps. Could it be more functional? Perhaps, but that also will probably come with time.

When all is said and done, this is a wonderful phone for me, and a big step up from the LG I was using (though I liked that phone) and paid the same for 2 years ago.

I'd like to thank this community for helping me come to my decision to buy!

[bubbatech]

These posts reinforce my point. The people buying this device, I think, are a different group of users than BB has catered to in the past and this is the main reason they can't make them fast enough to keep up with the demand. The tech press approached this device looking for an "iphone killer" or the traditional blackberry. It is neither, so many of them panned it. For the rest of us, who are looking for a good, functional smartphone without some glaring deficiency (e.g. Treo 650 S%#$ phone, no voice dialing, Moto9 - fantastic phone, weak browser and pda), it is excellent. No doubt, if a CDMA/worldphone type iphone is ever marketed by Verizon, I will consider it because the UI is second-to-none, assuming it has voice dialing and stereo BT, but at that time, it would have to outstrip the second gen touch-screen BB before I would buy it. Considering that this first effort works so well, we shall see.

[HHC5]

I too am new to BB with my Storm. And this site is so helpful...not sure what I'd do without it. The Storm is one of those luxuries that quickly became a necessity.

[ablueyedgurl]

I too have not posted here, but have lurked for the last couple of months. I LOVE my Storm. I was not a bb user before and did a lot of research before purchasing on launch date.

When I started, I was going to purchase an iphone....but did NOT want to switch carriers. I love Verizon - their service has been great for me where I travel & their cs has always done what I needed.

I appreciate all the information sharing & look forward to using my Storm to it's full capacity.

[asmallchild]

I've been waiting for a phone like this for a while. As a longtime Verizon customer, they really haven't had a smartphone that screamed, "YOU MUST HAVE ME!"

I mean, have you looked at their WinMo offerings? Before the Omnia and the Touch Pro, many of them looked like bricks. Sold at $300 a piece.

I really like the direction Verizon has FINALLY taken in terms of offering appealing smartphones (whether it be the Storm, the Omnia, etc... etc...)

It's a shame Apple and AT&T had to show them how many customers they could win with a well-designed smartphone

[forte831]

Yeah welcome to the crack after trying the fruit u never want to go back the full control you have over your deckce compared to a feature phone is awesome I will never own a branded phone again.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[bubbatech]

What I see emerging here is that the 9530 is attracting mostly smartphone users who want something better. For example, I am a long-time Verizon customer. Their CS is absolutely outstanding, and changing to a different carrier is not really an option anyway because I am too entrenched with VZW because of multiple lines with overlapping contracts and a dependence on the extended family having the same carrier to facility "In" calling. However, everyone can agree that their phone offerings in comparison to other carriers, especially lately, have tended to suck, especially when they crippled critical features. For the first time, they offered something I actually wanted rather than my saying "well - that one seems to suck less than the others". Even better, it has panned out - after three weeks, I remain pleased with the choice and have found no limitations that suggest to me "Well, I'll keep it because their other offerings suck more". It has turned out to be an objectively good choice for me as a device and would be something that I would choose regardless of the carrier that offered it.

[whtciv2k]

It has been said that 75% of the people purchasing this device are newbies to Blackberries like me. I think this is the key to why one hears such wildly variable opinions because the expectations of new BB users are very different from long-time BB types. I submit that the many of us newbies are using the 9530 for different reasons than many of the veterans of this forum. In my case, I use the 9530 for 1) information storage and retrieval - this includes memos, web content, and contacts; 2) placing and receiving phone calls; 3) messaging; and 4) Media. Note that this is *in order of importance*. This is key because I suspect most of the "veteran" BB users would have messaging as #1 AND #2, whereas many of us newbies think of it more as a phone/information/computing device - a function at which it very much excels compared to any other smartphone I have used (Kyo 7135 --> Treo 650 --> Motorola Q9 --> BB9530). There is no doubt in my mind that a physical keyboard is more efficient for heavy messaging (email/SMS) and therefore, if that is your priority, the 9530 is not the optimal choice. But if you want something that displays incoming emails, web-pages, memo info, and does a reasonably good job with phones calls with decent voice dialing etc, it is the best choice I have ever seen Verizon offer. So like anything else, when considering this device, is it an optimal choice? The answer is: it depends - what do you expect, what do you want?

Precisely what I have been trying to say. Of course you are going to hate something if you can't figure out how to use it. BB's are tricky to use.

[bubbatech]

Yes, well this was the reason the New York Times columnist David Pogue trashed the device. He had certain preconceived notions as to how the device worked and the general philosophy for input. Since they did not conform to reality, he couldn't operate it properly and therefore trashed it (edit: for example, he released a video showing him attempting to enter a calender time by clicking the small numbers on the screen - it doesn't work that way - it warks by sweeping your finger across the number (subnote: in his defense, the documentation from BB really sucks and apparently the phone support from BB didn't help him at all). This device is fundamentally different in philosophy and how input is handled - combine that with a few minor bugs in the original firmware, and many journalists will trash it. Even after a couple of weeks with it, the vast majority are not going to live it and learn the nuances that make it a very efficient device for those of us that use it the way we do.

[bigman2]

Who cares what reviewers think of the phone? Isn't the important thing that YOU like it, since YOU are the one paying for it and who will be using it regularly?