[liquidsense]

SiliconRepublic.com: BlackBerry Storm price plans revealed - Comms

Edit: this seems far too cheap to be right. Am I missing something?
"Under the Perfect Choice Access 100 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €109.99"

"And under the Perfect Choice Access 600 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €49.99"

Prices range from $60.00 - $140.00???


BlackBerry Storm price plans revealed
29.10.2008
Vodafone today revealed the price plans for the much-anticipated BlackBerry Storm device that will enter the market just in time for Christmas. The device will come with mobile TV and music downloads included.

The new BlackBerry will be the first clickable, touchscreen phone purposely built for Vodafone, and will feature easy access to social networking sites, turn-by-turn satellite navigation, as well as music and video players.

Vodafone said this afternoon that the new device will be available via four initial price plans, with a number of free options on three of those plans.

Under the Perfect Choice Access 100 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €109.99 and will cost €49.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 100 minutes, 100 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.

Under the Perfect Choice Access 200 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €64.99 and will cost €64.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 200 minutes, 200 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.

Under the Perfect Choice Access 400 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €69.99 and will cost €84.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 400 minutes, 400 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.

And under the Perfect Choice Access 600 plan, the Storm handset will retail for €49.99 and will cost €99.99 a month as part of a bundle that will include 600 minutes, 600 texts, 1GB of BlackBerry email, mobile TV and 10 full-track music downloads.

According to Vodafone, a number of free options for calls, texts and landline minutes will accompany the Perfect Choice Access 200, 400 and 600 price plans, whereby purchasers can choose between 100, 200 and 400 calls and texts or 100, 200 and 400 landline minutes respectively.

Additional call charges that will be applied to the pricing plans if users go beyond their package allocation will range between 18 cent and 30 cent, 11 cent per text message, €2 per megabyte of BlackBerry email and 2 cent per kilobyte of Vodafone Live.

The new smart phone is the fruit of a long-term strategic alliance between Vodafone and BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), and will be available exclusively on Vodafone’s 3G networks in Ireland, the UK, mainland Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand from next month.

The new BlackBerry Storm smart phone comes with a browser which delivers a browsing experience with desktop-style depiction in either portrait or landscape view. The new user interface combines the familiar dedicated ‘menu’ and ‘escape’ keys common to BlackBerry smart phones, but adds support for multi-touches, taps and slides, allowing the user to easily highlight, scroll, pan and zoom, making navigation fast, easy and intuitive.

The 3.25-inch screen gives users a variety of different sense experiences. Despite its flat surface, users feel the sensation of actually pressing down on virtual keys, which also light up when touched. This makes it quick and easy to type texts and emails, as well as navigate through the phone’s functions. Customers will also have the choice of using a full QWERTY, SureType or multi-tap keyboard.

More space has been dedicated to the high-resolution colour screen, allowing customers to display multimedia content and comfortably view attachments, as well as read and edit documents.

The screen, described by Vodafone as ‘ground-breaking’, with its 480 x 360 pixel resolution display, switches from portrait mode to landscape mode as the handset is rotated, while automatically changing the format of the keyboard from multi-tap or RIM’s SureType to full QWERTY.

By John Kennedy

Pictured: the BlackBerry Storm in music mode

[liquidsense]

I hate to have to bump my own post. But dang. Is this not surprising anyone? -- that the phone is this cheap?

[Boots4283]

I'm excited... getting the phone unlocked

[VoltaicShock]

Yeah it's cheap over there but I doubt it will be that cheap here.

[moosc]

dam you all are missing it Tv Dam i doubt the US version will have Tv ... what the **** is VZW waiting for tell us Americans what you have in store im tired of waiting and reading i want the Storm yesterday

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[monkeynuts]

I hate to have to bump my own post. But dang. Is this not surprising anyone? -- that the phone is this cheap?

That's no so cheap for a phone in Europe. I'm on a �25 (~US$45) a month plan and I got my last phone (N95) for �40 on an 18 month contract. I'm expecting to up my plan to �35 per month (US$55) and get a Storm for around �50 + free BlackBerry email, internet and 300 mins a month. If I end up paying more than �100 for the Storm, I'll think twice.

[alan8385]

How come this can't be seen on the Vodafone website? Not doubting that this isn't true. Just wondering where the info comes from if not available from the company it's about?!

[WG]

That's no so cheap for a phone in Europe. I'm on a �25 (~US$45) a month plan and I got my last phone (N95) for �40 on an 18 month contract. I'm expecting to up my plan to �35 per month (US$55) and get a Storm for around �50 + free BlackBerry email, internet and 300 mins a month. If I end up paying more than �100 for the Storm, I'll think twice.

What are you talking about not so cheap. Lets look at what we in the U.S. are going to pay for the phone and our plans here. To start with as far as we know so far we dont get T.V. and even if we did, it would cost an extra 20$ a month here.

Ok so the Storm cost i will go conservative 200$ U.S.

Plan 450 anytime min 55$/month
unlimited txt 15$/month
BB plan internet,BB email,VZ navigation 30$/month
since you did not say anything about insurance i wont mention it. Also the Lady I spoke with at Billing yesterday told me that the VZ nav would be included with the unlimited 30$ monthly charge.

that is 200.00$ or �260 for the phone itself
plan 100.00$ or �130 a month for the plan

So who is getting screwed for you to tell us that if you have to pay more than �100 you wont get it...... that is like us complaining that we have to pay more than 79$ for the phone. Am I missing something??

[alan8385]

What are you talking about not so cheap. Lets look at what we in the U.S. are going to pay for the phone and our plans here. To start with as far as we know so far we dont get T.V. and even if we did, it would cost an extra 20$ a month here.

Ok so the Storm cost i will go conservative 200$ U.S.

Plan 450 anytime min 55$/month
unlimited txt 15$/month
BB plan internet,BB email,VZ navigation 30$/month
since you did not say anything about insurance i wont mention it. Also the Lady I spoke with at Billing yesterday told me that the VZ nav would be included with the unlimited 30$ monthly charge.

that is 200.00$ or �260 for the phone itself
plan 100.00$ or �130 a month for the plan

So who is getting screwed for you to tell us that if you have to pay more than �100 you wont get it...... that is like us complaining that we have to pay more than 79$ for the phone. Am I missing something??

I was thinking the exact same thing!

[triedtherest3GSisthebest]

i was also thinking the same thing. when i first heard voda thought about giving the storm away for free if you had a plan �35 or more. I said to myself let me go to a exchange rate site and see just how much �35 a month is converted to the good ol US dollar. when i saw around 55-60 dollars I d$#n near fainted. holy crap that's cheap and you get the storm free.

[spartan905]

Does anyone know if verizon plans on doing its storm plan like this (similar to the iphone)? Where there are certain plans that pertain only to the storm? I hope not! we better be able to use our current voice plan with the extra $30.

[NFLBlitze1]

i suspect 200-300 for the Storm compared to the fact that phones and plans are generally cheaper in europe.

[monkeynuts]

... Snip....
So who is getting screwed for you to tell us that if you have to pay more than �100 you wont get it...... that is like us complaining that we have to pay more than 79$ for the phone. Am I missing something??

Sorry, I think you might have read my post the wrong way. I meant that the price of the Storm that Vodafone Ireland are announcing is the kind of price the average Irish consumer is expecting to pay, because all the other phones (except the iPhone, which is subject to 'apple tax' ) are around this price or less on similar contracts... So it doesn't look so cheap to someone on this side of the pond.

Dunno why you guys get charged so much for mobile phones and plans, I am from the UK and find most things a little cheaper in the US.

[WG]

Sorry did not mean for that to come off so harsh... but ya as for cell phones the U.S. is so far behind the rest of the world and yet we are paying so much for our phones and plans that it is not even funny here. and thanks you for clarifying it for us.

[AnthoUK]

That's no so cheap for a phone in Europe. I'm on a �25 (~US$45) a month plan and I got my last phone (N95) for �40 on an 18 month contract. I'm expecting to up my plan to �35 per month (US$55) and get a Storm for around �50 + free BlackBerry email, internet and 300 mins a month. If I end up paying more than �100 for the Storm, I'll think twice.

I spoke to Voda a few dayys ago about moving our business phones, the price i was quoted off the top of my head was about �40 a month for 750 mins 500 sms Email and Data with the handset free

[lbostons]

I hope that it is cheaper than we are anticipating since our market really sucks and we are pretty much in a recession!

[VoltaicShock]

I hope that it is cheaper than we are anticipating since our market really sucks and we are pretty much in a recession!

I hope so too, but I am leaning towards the Bold and look at the price of that -

[Technofan7]

The phone might be cheap $ but their plans seem expensive.

[zahirw]

Spoke to BB India.... they say its about 800 USD and will be released in Dec