Buggy Storms were Pushed out the Door

Interviews with RIM execs confirm that the Storm's development was rushed to meet deadlines.

If the BlackBerry Storm’s buggy software, slow interface and glitchy user experience made it feel a little half-baked, that may have been because it was. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, device-maker Research in Motion and carrier Verizon cut necessary development time short in order to meet a Black Friday deadline.

In an interview with the paper, RIM co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie said the team made the Nov. 21 deadline “by the skin of their teeth” after pushing back an original October deadline. Anonymous sources “close to the launch” cited by the Journal also claim that flaws in the phone’s operating system were overlooked in the last minute push.

Early reviews of the Storm (including Digital Trends’), almost universally panned the device as a lukewarm iPhone imitator.

Fortunately for Storm buyers, development didn’t end at launch, though. RIM and Verizon released a firmware upgrade for the phone in December, and Verizon’s chief marketing officer Mike Lanman says another update, with features like a full keypad in portrait mode, is also on the way.