[something]

When I bought the storm I was expecting to have the experience RIM is known for. Solid reliable and productive machines. I love the storm when it works, I love to brag about that part of it. I haven't been wanting to admit it to others, but the storm just isn't ready. I've read all the responses to that kind of statement, but they just don't explain away the issues. Basic functionality has been unreliable. My phone doesn't ring anymore and the camera doesn't work. Without modification, my screen doesn't click as it should. Every day I get caught in a moment where I need the device to work, but instead I'm staring at the spinning dial.

I agree when it is said that this isn't supposed to be ab iphone replicate, but this device isn't being those other things. I'm spending too much time on these forums looking up how to take care of different problems. If the software for this device doesn't get cleaned up in a month or two, I'm going to consider this device a complete mistake to purchase. Given what I know now, it would have been obvious to choose between the bold or the iphone. There are not any reasons that excuse the state of things. I'm relatively young, and I purchased this device so it could enable me. But now I've learned my lesson, I'm not going to risk waiting for promises to pan out. I'm going to return a product when it doesn't deliver on its basic advertised features and benefits.

RIM has impacted their reputation, but I hope this mess gets cleaned up and that it doesn't happen again.

I love this device for what it can be. I think I'm a heart broken blackberry lover. But I wish I was addicted to using it, not using and regularly fixing. This is depressing.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[Janye]

It's amazing what different manufacture date, OS system, etc. can cause in experience. I am like almost a week in and I am not experiencing any issues. My phone clicks, I occasionally get a timer but its not ALL THE TIME, and has no dust issues so far.

Have you tried returning it ? Seems like your keeping up with the betas. (I am not. I did with my pearl but I am not risking it on this one) so I wish I had something better to tell you. I guess a lot of people here wish they had a magic storm faerie. The only thing is to hold out hoping for more fixes. I have this phone, I know it is seeming to have issues, but I think I am going to hold on. I just can't think RIM would be that reliable after everything I know them to be.

[jbharman45]

Yeah, this is my first foray into Blackberry in nearly 10 years. It HAS been frustrating, but every time I have to work on my wife's Omnia, I have a glad feeling that I am not there right now. However, nobody stands still and if this doesn't get a lot better in the next while I am going to have to move too. I know exactly that feeling of desperation when you need to use it and you have the horrible wait from a battery pull. That's inexcusable!

[jdoc77]

RIM clearly made a marketing decision. I think it was... an interesting one. They gambled that they could grab a huge chunk of the touch-screen market share in one fell swoop if they were the only new game in town for holiday 2008. They were right. They knew the Pre was on the way and that Apple was trying to improve its game.

This was their one chance to jump straight to #2 and get as close to #1 in the touch-screen market as possible, so it was good timing... but..

I honestly think they thought they had a better handle on the situation than they did/do... but the only thing they can do now that makes sense is hold off on releasing the next official OS until it is as bulletproof as it can be.

There are enough current and new users making due with .75 and happy that it makes no sense for them to release an official update before it's golden.

Good luck either way. I'm sorry it's been such a problem for you.

[BrianW2007]

Sadly, It's not just the storm. Have you seen the complaints on the 8900? The 8350i? Even the bold has faults. Do some research. I'm not sure whats going on with RIM, But, if they intend to stay around they need to get a grip.
If the next official OS for our 9530 isn't damn near absolutely perfect. I'm dropping this device.

[bigman2]

You might think so, but the simple fact is the majority of cell phone users never read any reviews for a phone. They walk into a store, pick out whichever phone they think looks best, and that's the sum total of their decision making process. Or they see a commercial for some phone, so they rush out and buy it.

I honestly have absolutely no sympathy whatsoever for those people. I know when I was giving thought to buying the Storm, I was reading every scrap of info I could get my hands on about it. I knew about as much about what I was getting into as a person could short of using the device. So far, I've been largely happy with the Storm. Seems like most of the complainers are the people who went out and bought one on a whim, or because it looked pretty in a commercial. I also was expecting a few early adopter teething issues, and honestly, they haven't even been as bad as I would have expected. Most of the problems people prattle on endlessly about are really pretty minor in the grand scheme of things. I liken it to a house.. Foundation's good, walls are solid, roof doesn't leak... It could use with a fresh coat of paint, and there are a few leaky faucets and slow drains, but we're talking creature comforts. It still does everything you need it to, just maybe not in the style you're accustomed to.

But, for all the claims that the Storm is going to be RIM's undoing and is this colossal blunder, it sure does seem to be selling well. Initial sales caught RIM completely off guard they were so good. It took them the better part of two months to catch up with the demand. Verizon sold out of its initial stock before noon on launch day. No one really knows the exact number, but we can bet it was at least in the mid-tens (40-60) of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands. That's nothing to sneeze at. The Storm has quite possibly been the best selling device RIM has ever had. Verizon has also gone on record saying it is/was their least returned smartphone, and have since sold 1 million units in the US. That sure sounds like a success story to me. I'm failing to see where the part about it being the downfall of the company comes into play. It may not be quite as brisk a sales pace as the Jesus Phone, but RIM isn't quite as experienced at creating hype like Apple is. Jobs is nothing if not a masterful salesman. Still, these are hardly the signs of imminent doom for RIM.

I know it can be exceedingly difficult for some people to grasp, but you need to understand that YOUR experiences do not necessarily reflect those of everyone else. Just because it's not living up to YOUR expectations does NOT mean it isn't exceeding those of other people. Say you're coming to the Storm after using an LG VX5400 for the past 2 years. Tell me that even if the UI is a little sluggish, it wouldn't be a massive step up. It may not be quite as impressive if you're coming from a Curve or Pearl, but compared to a lot of phones VZW offers, the Storm is top rate.

So can we just agree that there are many aspects to this situation you failed to take into consideration, and you either retract your comment or you pretty much lose any and all credibility?

[r15k]

This is my first BlackBerry, thank god I havent had the issues others have had. Its a lil frustrating, slower than my friend curve but its new technology...this is expected. Overall Im still glad I have my Storm.

[Wrenchman9]

I have my own opinion on what's going on with the Storm. After being in the computer repair and tech support business since the 80's I can say one thing with a high degree of certainty. Most of the problems with computers originate between the keyboard and the chair. With the Storm I have a feeling that although the OS may have some minor problems the end user may be the real issue. The range of issues alone make me suspect that RIM would never have released this phone. Some people (like me) are having no problems, others are having nothing but problems. It would be interesting to know what options have been modified and what has been installed on the problem phones. It would also be interesting to know if all updates have been installed on the problem phones.

When I ask a user to do exactly what he or she did to bring up a particular problem I am always amazed to see them click all over the damn screen, answer questions without possibly being able to have read the entire message or simply just end a process or application without waiting for the system to respond. All this hyperactivity is a major reason for rendering systems unusable and in need of reloading the OS or applications. I suspect that the same is happening with the Storm in more cases than not.

Take battery life for example. Some say 4 hours, 6, 8, 10, 2 days. Some say they can't get half a day out of it and say it sits idle for most of that time. I'll bet first of all they have no idea how to check for running apps and/or have installed a ton of apps and again have no idea what's running. There's just no possible way that battery life under similar usage conditions can vary that much from device to device.

This OCD with Application Memory is yet another sign of people who are stuck on fiddling around with the device where they shouldn't be. How are we to know what the house keeping schedule of the OS is? Unless you monitor this continuously there is no way to know what's happening. You can check at boot up and find 40m and then find 138k an hour later and then 23m 15 minutes later. I wonder if anyone ever thought that house keeping takes time and perhaps the system is designed to do this during sleep and only does it during an active process when it NEEDS to in order to continue operations? Nah, that can't be it can it? I think I'll pull the battery to get my memory back! Yea there's a good idea. Kind of like pressing the reset button on the PC when it appears the system is making you wait too long to move to the next level of Kill Bee Killer or whatever! Then damning Microsoft for making such a POS OS when it won't boot again!

IMO - please read I said IMO - there is no way that hardware QC is the issue. The OS has some glitches. I suspect battery pulls in the middle of a system event has a lot to do with the degradation of the system over time and the eventual non-operational device (brick) we hear about. So upgrade to a leaked OS! RTF INSTRUCTIONS FIRST AND **** FOLLOW THEM ****. BACKUP!!!!!!! DON'T THINK!! JUST FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS. (103 runs great BTW) People who know these devices wrote the instructions. SLOW DOWN! READ! Then do.

All the problems after an OS upgrade make no sense to me at all. Some people have no problems, others have more problems than when they started and other have a host of new problems. This further supports my feeling that some of these devices have been so screwed up by their owners that nothing short of a wipe and reinstall is going to fix them.

[Wrenchman9]

Tell me that even if the UI is a little sluggish, it wouldn't be a massive step up.

I agree!

What's this 'sluggish' thing anyway? What do people want to do 125 WPM on a touch screen?? Is that all people do is text? What do people do write 3 page emails on these things? Hang out on YIM all day? When do people work? Get a life people! It's a freaking phone on steroids. It works pretty damn well if you don't f with it constantly.

[cereal killer]

I came across this article today and the decision of RIM to push the product to market has come back on them. They are experiencing thinner margins on steady sales. Why? Rising cost....

It's a very good read for those interested in how the impact from the amount of Storms sold actually worked against RIM.

Here's the article

Blackberry Storm Batters Research In Motion | Telecom | Financial Articles & Investing News | TheStreet.com

[asmallchild]

I agree!

What's this 'sluggish' thing anyway? What do people want to do 125 WPM on a touch screen?? Is that all people do is text? What do people do write 3 page emails on these things? Hang out on YIM all day? When do people work? Get a life people! It's a freaking phone on steroids. It works pretty damn well if you don't f with it constantly.

I haven't noticed sluggishness.

I actually use vlingo now for wordier texts.

I just compiled a 2 page email myself on the Storm today.

Works just fine

[mulder]

It's funny to see ppl tripping over themselves to write books defending the storm. RIM's CEO already acknowledge it was a buggy phone:
RIM CEO's Statement On Buggy Phones Is Unacceptable - Mobile Blog - InformationWeek

If the CEO says it's a buggy phone and...
If most published reviews say it's a buggy phone and...
If Owners say it's a buggy phone then...
Isn't it a buggy phone?

Exactly.

[mulder]

"RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said the companies made the crucial Black Friday deadline 'by the skin of their teeth,'"

BlackBerry Storm Is Off To Bit of a Bumpy Start - WSJ.com

[asmallchild]

It's funny to see ppl tripping over themselves to write books defending the storm. RIM's CEO already acknowledge it was a buggy phone:
RIM CEO's Statement On Buggy Phones Is Unacceptable - Mobile Blog - InformationWeek

If the CEO says it's a buggy phone and...
If most published reviews say it's a buggy phone and...
If Owners say it's a buggy phone then...
Isn't it a buggy phone?

Exactly.

You are absolutely right. It is a buggy phone. I guess I have been lucky.

Although the more apps I add, the more likely my luck will run dry.

[ArmsDlr]

It's funny to see ppl tripping over themselves to write books defending the storm. RIM's CEO already acknowledge it was a buggy phone:

If the CEO says it's a buggy phone and...
If most published reviews say it's a buggy phone and...
If Owners say it's a buggy phone then...
Isn't it a buggy phone?

Exactly.

Apple acknowledged its problems with the IPhone at launch. Then they fixed them. Its not just a Blackberry problem. Its a cutting edge technology problem.

[n0t0ryus1]

Apple acknowledged its problems with the IPhone at launch. Then they fixed them. Its not just a Blackberry problem. Its a cutting edge technology problem.

Cutting edge? The only thing new about this phone is the sure press screen, which is fairly simple when you open it up. Touch screens have been around long enough already so I dont really see any excuse for this phone to be released in this state.