The world's first touch screen BlackBerry, the Storm, landed in the United States late last month, and much to RIM's chagrin, the device has already been slammed by a number of high profile gadget reviewers, including the New York Times' David Pogue, who dubbed the Storm "the BlackBerry Dud." That's fine. Opinions are just that: opinions. We've all got 'em. The problem is that Pogue's review misrepresents the new BlackBerry, which, though far from perfect, shows some real potential—at least in my opinion. Here's why.
First of all, some important background on Pogue: Though he reviews a wide variety of gizmos and other electronics for The Times, he's largely considered an "Apple reviewer," because he's one of the few folks lucky enough to regularly receive new Mac products from Jobs and Co. before they're publicly released. (Pogue was, in fact, recently named one of the top 10 Apple influencers of 2009 by MacLife magazine). Pogue's Apple-related reviews tend to be positive, as well—with the exception of his July piece on MobileMe, which was particularly critical of Apple, though it would've been difficult not to be following that fiasco...
It's also worth mentioning that Pogue wasn't alone in his harsh assessment of the Storm. Quite the opposite, really; early Storm reviews were largely negative, with one bad review seemingly feeding off of another. I could list them here, but the only one that really got my blood-boiling was Pogue's—probably because I respect the guy as a fellow gadget reviewer and because he's so well-read--and as such, I'll focus on that review.
What follows is a list of some of Pogue's complaints about the Storm, as well as my commentary on why most of his points don’t add up.
From Pogue's Storm review:
"[I]n its zeal to cash in on some of that iPhone touch-screen mania, R.I.M. has created a BlackBerry without a physical keyboard. Hello? Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel. A Prius with terrible mileage. Cracker Jack without a prize inside."
My take: RIM isn't doing away with physical keyboards. The vast majority of its devices feature some of the most functional smartphone keyboards on the planet, including, three of the four latest additions to the BlackBerry family: The Pearl 8220, Bold 9000 and Curve 8900. If you want a BlackBerry with a keyboard, you'll have no trouble finding one in the future.
It's true that RIM's attempt to market a touch screen BlackBerry represents the company's desire to capitalize on the popularity of the iPhone, but it also demonstrates that RIM is attempting to innovate in a market where a lack of innovation can quickly lead to trouble—just look at Palm.
Oh yeah, and considering Pogue is a bit of an "Apple Guy," you'd think he would realize that Apple's high-end iPod touch—the "funnest" iPod to date, according to Apple—doesn’t feature a scroll wheel because Apple decided to try something different...
From Pogue's review:
"The entire screen acts like a mouse button. Press hard enough, and it actually responds with a little plastic click...As a result, the Storm offers two degrees of touchiness. You can tap the screen lightly, or you can press firmly to register the palpable click...It’s not a bad idea. In fact, it ought to make the on-screen keyboard feel more like actual
