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.
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RSSApple's Steve Jobs set the standard, and continues to stay on the same course: Forget about competing; just do what you do best. And you know what? If Apple wanted to do so? They have no debt and so much cash, that they could become one of the nation's biggest banks right now.
What irks me most about the Storm is that so many people were so willing to bash reviewers who forewarned them that the Storm was a broken toy out of the box -- most notably, David Pogue -- yet they not only bashed him and others who provided similar reviews, but then went out and bought one anyway.
Nose? How does it feel to be disenfaced to spite your previous owner's self?
Worse than this, is the so-called "reviewers" and self-reported Storm owners who, seemingly paid by the word, told us how much they loved their Storm; how much better it is than the iPhone; how much better it is than anything else available in the Universe. These people are not only reprehensible for their moral failings; they're disgusting examples of what the most mean-spirited, most greedy and most despicable among us can be.
Stupidity sometimes kills people. Other times, it just helps people part with their money in a speedy fashion. But those who suffer from it ultimately get both.