Category: Usability

The Blackberry Storm (add weather pun here)

At FoxLand we’ve been talking about the Blackberry Storm a lot recently. We like our iPhones here, but it’s not perfect, and with it now being the no.1 phone in the US, we’re looking for competition and new ideas. We have also recently been working with a client on an iPhone application and other mobile-focussed websites, so we have a great deal of interest in what is happening in this area.

RIM are a strong, respected and much-loved company with fanatical users (much like the other fruit-seller), and they have released a string of highly regarded phones over the years while also breaking out of their corporate niche with phones like the Pearl. Therefore, RIM’s first foray into the touchscreen market, the Blackberry Storm, promised much. The feature that had us particularly intrigued was the unique take on the touchscreen, that included a ‘clickable’ screen. This creates a multitude of ways of interacting with buttons and text, and also has the potential to avoid ‘accidents’ (it is often far too easy to accidently click on items you didn’t mean to on the iPhone). 

Sadly though it looks like RIM have failed in their revolution, and while it is early days and there may be a software fix coming, it looks like they have a major problem on their hands. From reviewers to developers to bloggers, the reviews vary from lukewarm to scathing. The highly regarded and usually pretty mellow David Pogue at the New York Times has put the boot in with his review:

It’s too much work, like using a manual typewriter. (“I couldn’t send two e-mails on this thing,” said one disappointed veteran.)

Incredibly, the Storm even muffs simple navigation tasks. When you open a menu, the commands are too close together; even if your finger seems to be squarely on the proper item, your click often winds up activating something else in the list.

I haven’t found a soul who tried this machine who wasn’t appalled, baffled or both.

So, what to do? As with the iPod before the perception is that companies seem to want to copy Apple without trying to create their own concepts and ideas. RIM are known for their fantastic phones that work brilliantly with email and use real keyboards. They could concentrate on that and push and innovate that whole experience. Many people will always prefer this to the touchscreen, even if it is ‘clickable’. What they shouldn’t do is even look like they’re trying to play ‘catch-up’. For example, earlier today as I walked past the Vodafone shop, they had a giant version of the Storm in the window showing the user experience (see image above). This is exactly the same as Apple who show giant iPhones in theirs and O2’s shop windows. Unfortunately for the giant Storm, the quality of the video looked terrible, the user interface poor – and worst of all, the screen had not been set up correctly – the image was squashed.

Update: See Stephen Fry’s mini take on the Storm (via Twitter)

Update 2: David Pogue follows up his article with some reader responses

Update 3: Jeff Ventura’s article about the issue includes this great quote:

The BlackBerry Storm, in my opinion, is a wonderful illustration of how Apple’s innovation and market appeal can force a smart company like RIM to invest millions of dollars in a product that’s way outside its core competency.  You don’t see Apple trying to create a full-on enterprise/e-mail device, do you?

by Andrew Fox

27 November, 2008