Storm Brewin’: Touch BlackBerry Hits Stores, Sells Out

The Verizon Wireless store in Times Square has sold out of BlackBerry Storm. Already. Long lines have formed across the country. The Storm, you see, has arrived.

MSNBC also spent a good chuck of its top-of-the-hour coverage with a gadget guru type who explained the differences between the $200 Storm and the iPhone (Storm can shoot video and has a “clickable” touchscreen, and typing is more intuitive, he noted. But no Wi-Fi.).

It all points to the potential for the Storm to become more than the subject of clever weather-related headlines (please see above for a mediocre example). The device, launched today after an aggressive television ad campaign and plenty of advance press, might take an iPhone-like trajectory if it’s as slick as people say it is. Dare we say it in this age of over-hyped technology?

The Storm is RIM’s first touchscreen BlackBerry and hits a fourth-quarter landscape rife with competing touchy devices. But RIM might naturally rise above the pack, including the Android-based G1 from T-Mobile USA. Why, you ask? Well, this may be a Master of the Obvious statement, but people love their BlackBerrys.

In other words, its brand equity as the smartphone leader (well, until last quarter) can’t be understated. There’s an inherent embedded base to tap for upgrades, which the iPhone did not have at launch, and it runs on the Verizon network, which is strongly pursuing the hearts and minds of corporate IT departments. Those departments are likewise already familiar with the BlackBerry landscape in terms of device management and security.

Business users may find BlackBerrys indispensable, but what about everyday users? RIM has been repositioning itself for months to go after the consumer market and directly take on Apple, both in terms of handset design and brand positioning. More and more of its new subscriber additions are from the consumer segment. However, the Apple App Store and coolness index adds up to a formidable competitor there, plus the Storm will run into the G1 and other consumer-focused BlackBerrys, for that matter.

So will the Storm blow Apple away in the quest to become America’s Top Smartphone? Time will tell.

Maybe one clue can also be found here: Vodafone plc in Britain launched the Storm earlier this month, and chief executive Vittorio Colao told journalists: "We might end up having a problem with giving enough Storms to as many customers who want it.”

For RIM, which has been slipping in market share, that’s a good problem to have.

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