The mobile phone wars entered a new phase today with the launch of the first touchscreen BlackBerry phone.
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The device, called the BlackBerry Storm, offers many of the same features found on the Apple iPhone, and will be available exclusively on the Vodafone network. It's due to hit shops in time for Christmas, with tariffs starting at about £35 per month, including unlimited data use.
BlackBerrys have long been popular with businessmen as mobile email devices, but Research In Motion, the company behind the handset, is keen to broaden the BlackBerry's appeal to a wider audience, and the touchscreen Storm is aimed as much at consumers as much as business users.
The Storm has up to 16GB of storage, enough for more than 3,000 songs, and users will be able to download tracks onto the device from the Vodafone Music Store. The 3.25in screen in sharp enough for watching movies on, and there's one-touch access to popular online social-networking services such as Facebook and the photo-sharing site Flickr, as well as built-in sat nav and mapping software.
The Storm has a 3.2-megapixel camera, compared to the iPhone's two-megapixel camera, and, unlike the iPhone, the Storm can record video. Users will also be able to download additional applications, games and programs for the device.
"There's nothing else like this in the market," said Mike Lazaridis, the chief executive of Research In Motion. "This will take the BlackBerry into the consumer marketplace."
Mr Lazaridis acknowledged that most BlackBerry users were heavy emailers, and said that the company's development teams had worked extremely hard to perfect a touchscreen interface that would be easy for users to type on.
The virtual keyboard produces a clicking sound and sensation when pressed, which makes it feel very similar to typing on an actual keyboard. The Storm also allows users to copy and paste text between messages and documents – a feature missing on Apple's iPhone – and users can switch between a full Qwerty keyboard or BlackBerry's SureType keyboard, which features two letters on each key.
