New touchscreen BlackBerry goes down a Storm

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 17 Sep 2008 at 07:57

Details have been "leaked" of RIM's first touchscreen BlackBerry handset, Storm.

In what looks like a suspiciously engineered leak, marketing materials from the phone's exclusive US carrier, Verizon, have emerged on the web.

The Storm will boast a "click touch" screen that RIM's marketing materials claims will offer "smooth, precise text input that feels like a keyboard."

The 3G Storm surpasses the iPhone 3G spec in several ways, with a 3.2 megapixel camera compared to the iPhone's 2.0 megapixel snapper, removable memory and battery, and picture messaging.

The big question is whether it can match the brilliance of the iPhone's interface, although the Verizon marketing material is certainly not short on hype, describing the Storm as a "game changer" that is "unlike anything seen in the market today".

The device looks set to further extend RIM's foray into the consumer market. Just last week, RIM unveiled the first clamshell BlackBerry handset, the Pearl Flip 8820, and signed a deal with social-networking site MySpace.

No details of the Storm's pricing or availability have been released yet.