BlackBerry Storm

The BlackBerry Storm was available through Vodafone in the UK, Germany, France (SFR), Italy, Ireland, Australia, South Africa (Vodacom), The Netherlands and India;^[9] Verizon Wireless in the United States; Telus, Bell, and SaskTel in Canada, on Iusacell in Mexico,^[10] and on LIME and Digicel in parts of the Caribbean.^[11]

The BlackBerry Storm 9530 was an international communication device featuring CDMA technology with EV-DO Rev. A data support, as well as UMTS with HSDPA and quad-band GSM with EDGE data access speeds. In contrast, the BlackBerry Storm 9500 lacks the CDMA module and is designed for use outside of North America. However, it only supports UMTS and HSDPA frequency bands for Europe, Oceania, Asia, and Brazil. This means that if the BlackBerry Storm is used with GSM wireless carriers in North America—such as AT&T, T-Mobile, Rogers, and Fido—it will only be able to access wireless internet at a maximum speed of EDGE. This limitation arises because GSM carriers in North America operate on different frequency bands for 3G than those used in the rest of the world.

When used in Europe, Africa, Asia, Oceania, or Brazil, the BlackBerry Storm can achieve HSDPA wireless data speeds, provided that the local GSM network supports it. Domestically in the US, the phone will utilize the primary network technology of its intended carrier (Verizon) and will rely on the GSM/UMTS/HSDPA networks of Vodafone when traveling abroad. Currently, there are no unlocked or unbranded versions of the GSM BlackBerry Storm available; however, unlocking the phone will allow it to be used with any GSM service provider.

The Storm utilizes the MSM7600 from Qualcomm,^[2] a dual core CPU with ARM11 400 MHz and ARM9 274 MHz. The device features 1 GB of onboard memory, 128 MB of NVRAM and an expandable memory slot support for a microSD card of up to an additional 32 GB. Verizon Wireless, Bell Mobility and Telus Mobility include a preinstalled 8 GB microSD card on board.

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Firmware updates were released after December 2008 that addressed most of the critic's issues; updates can be downloaded online or over-the-air, and can be installed by the user. The current^[when?] software is:

The BlackBerry Storm by default is SIM locked, and can be subsequently unlocked on both the 9500 & 9530 Storm editions to use on any GSM network if the code is obtained from the respective provider. The 9530 is not compatible with AT&T Mobility's 3G UMTS/HSDPA network because its UMTS transceiver only works at 2.1 GHz which is a frequency not used in the United States for UMTS, but the BlackBerry Storm will still work over the slower EDGE network in the United States and respective EDGE network from Rogers Communications in Canada. ^{[citation needed]}

The Blackberry Storm sold 500,000 units in its first month and 1 million units by January 2009.^[15] However, Verizon had to replace almost all of the one million Storm smartphones sold in 2008 due to issues with the SurePress touch screen,^[16] and claimed $500 million in losses.^[8]

The Storm was met with generally mixed reviews, some focusing on serious usability problems in particular. Many gadget reviewers, including Bonnie Cha of CNET,^[17] Joshua Topolsky of Engadget^[18] and Sascha Segan from PC Magazine,^[19] noted the Storm's much-improved web browser and impressive call quality, while also deeming the SurePress touchscreen difficult to learn and a hindrance to fast typing. Several reviews also noted that the web browser was still unable to handle complex webpages correctly, saying that the iPhone's Safari is a better mobile browser. A number of reviewers also ran into multiple software glitches during their testing, such as lockups, sluggish performance and refusal to switch orientation.^[20] The lack of Wi-Fi support also irked a few reviewers, but Jeff Rauschert of MLive wrote that Verizon's wireless network somewhat made up for that.^[21] David Haskin of the Reseller News noted that BlackBerry's major business features, such as enterprise e-mail integration and Microsoft Office document editing capabilities, were on par with BlackBerry's previous offerings, noting that these features would likely make the Storm more popular with the business crowd.^[22] David Pogue of the New York Times bashed the BlackBerry Storm calling it the BlackBerry Dud and said it was "head-bangingly frustrating", particularly for lacking Wi-Fi and being prone to too many glitches.^[23] Stephen Fry called the Storm "the Edsel of smartphones, an absolute smeller from top to bottom."^[24]