Seven Reasons Pogue Hates The BlackBerry Storm (RIMM)

Nicholas Carlson | November 26, 2008 2:24 PM

blackberry-storm-vzw.jpgBad news for RIM's Q4 (RIMM): Unlike the Journal's Walt Mossberg, influential New York Times gadget-reviewer David Pogue hates the BlackBerry Storm.

He writes, "How did this thing ever reach the market? Didn’t anyone at RIM actually try it? Or was everyone involved just too terrified to pull the emergency brake on this train?"

Pogue's complaints in bulletpoints:

  • The touchscreen. "Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel."
  • Email. The touchscreen can feel two types of touches, light and not-so-light, but Pogue says that sensitivity is wasted in the email app. "A light touch highlights the key but doesn’t type anything. Only by clicking fully do you produce a typed letter. It’s way, way too much work, like using a manual typewriter."
  • The vertical keyboard. The Storm switches between a horizontal and vertical keyboard depending on how its held. Hold its long side vertically, and you get the "SureType" keyboard, which Pogue hates because inaccurately tries to guess what you're typing. "For example, to type “get,” you press the GH, ER, and TY keys. Unfortunately, that’s also “hey.” You can see the problem. And trying to enter Web addresses is utterly hopeless."
  • Navigation. Pogue calls it "head-bangingly frustrating" because the buttons are too close together and the phone takes too long to interpret how the user touched the screen.
  • It's Slow. Pogue says the Storm takes seconds upon seconds to perform simple takes. "Remember: To convert seconds into BlackBerry time, multiply by seven."
  • No Wi-Fi.
  • Bugs: "Freezes, abrupt reboots, nonresponsive controls, cosmetic glitches. Way too much 'unexpected behavior.”

See Also:
BlackBerry Storm Ship Date Moved Up A Week (RIMM)
RIM's BlackBerry Storm Is No iPhone, But Should Sell Well (RIMM)

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41 Comments

joe the whiner said:
But it has copy-paste !
Hehateme said:
Pogue is a apple fanboy of the highest order. Pogue has written handbooks on how to use the iphone. So it's not shocking that he doesn't like the new BB. Ever since Rupert Murdoch bought the WSJ. Mossberg has stopped kissing Steve Jobs ass. When Murdoch buys the Ny Times Pogue will stop his biased reporting. Or get fired.
"Isn’t the thumb keyboard the defining feature of a BlackBerry? A BlackBerry without a keyboard is like an iPod without a scroll wheel."

Umm the iPod touch abandoned the iconic scroll wheel for a touchscreen so why can't RIM abandon its iconic keyboard for a touchscreen?
Ted T. said:
"Pogue is a apple fanboy of the highest order."

Is that why Pogue gave the iPhone 3G a bad review?

I have to say Pogue's Storm review will go down as a classic. Too funny. And the Storm a.k.a Depression is a textbook example of what happens when you ship an obviously unready product so as to stick to some arbitrary deadline.

The question is if the BlackBerry Storm brand has been Vista-ed for good.
T said:
Seven reasons to hate Pogue.

He's biased
mikeyp said:
he "SureType" keyboard, which Pogue hates because inaccurately tries to guess what you're typing. "For example, to type “get,” you press the GH, ER, and TY keys. Unfortunately, that’s also “hey.” You can see the problem. And trying to enter Web addresses is utterly hopeless."


------------


yeah, and there is an OFF feature for that... use it.

tongaton said:
The Storm is not a viable competitor for the iPhone. People will vote with their wallets and we'll see in a while.
Dan Cornish (URL) said:
This is the reason why we are developing for the Iphone and not the Blackberry. "Swing where the ball will be" http://blog.cosential.com/?p=156
Jack Reacher said:
Have to agree with Pgue. Almost impossible to type anything in vertical keyboard. Well, not almost----I could not ever get it to work. The internet browser is 5X slower than my Moto Q. It arbitrarily cuts off the "Radio" so you can't do anything with it.....

It is a brick.
Bjorn Tipling (URL) said:
Logging in is completely utterly and hopelessly broken on this site. Why don't you just use wordpress...what are you using?


Also:

hehateme, stop trolling this blog. You're an ass. And if Murdoch buys the nytimes I'll stop reading news.
Hehateme said:
The apple fanboys are amazing. The iphone 3G is slower than dial up. The apple fanboys dont complain. The iphone 3G cant cut&paste. The apple fanboys dont complain. The iphone 3G Freezes more times than ice cream. The apple fanboys dont complain. The iphone 3G camera is so 1998. The apple fanboys dont complain. The iphone 3G GPS system couldnt find Dolly Parttons breasts. The apple fanboys dont complain. How could Blackberry ever satisfy the apple ladyboys?
Dean Wermer said:
Small square screens are dead; full screens (with the necessary virtual keyboards or pull-out keyboards) are clearly the future. Pogue may be correct on most of his criticisms about the Storm, but he is wrong to criticize the Storm for ditching the typical blackberry tiny square display, even if RIM did not execute the touchscreen/virtual keypad perfectly with this model. To the extent innovation in technology features occurs, one can often say that the surpassed, legacy technology is the defining feature of some manufacturer/retailer's product line, but that is hardly a reason in and of itself not to move forward with the newer tech. To the extent that Pogue is arguing that RIM should be locked evermore into thumb keyboards throughout their product line, he sounds like a bit of a fogey - similar to my elderly father ranting that all computers should still ship with MS-DOS.
Scott K said:
Just because Pogue didn't like the Storm doesn't mean he's biased. I've read other reviews which mention the same complaints, esp. regarding having to click hard on the keyboard.

I have an iPhone. I love my iPhone, but I'm really disappointed that the Storm is a dud. Competition is a good thing. I thought the storm would force Apple to raise their game, and vice-versa.

Anybody have a Blackberry Bold? I've heard much better things about that.
dj said:
bjorn tipling stop trolling this blog...LOL sorry dude but he hate me is funny
nymediaexchange (URL) said:
It's not really that bad. The only issue is with an occasional freeze, which requires removal of the battery to do a soft restart. Hoping firmware will address speed and freezing...after all the initial os was pulled for a security loophole.

Jason C said:
Nicholas, are you shorting RIMM? I mean WTF? How many negative articles about Blackberries can SAI write per week?

Storm is late, Storm is crap, RIMM will miss numbers, Blackberries fail more than iPhones, Blackberries cause cancer, RIMM is the devil (OK, those last two are jokes)...

Reveal! What is the deal?
unbjorn fetus said:
@dj

I tots agree, my man. Hehateme is truly great (the kids might say "epic"), Bjorn Tipling should be banned for being the most uninteresting commenter on this fine weblog.
EK said:
Let see how does it go: Believe nothing of what you read and only half of what you see or something to that effect. My Storm works just fine. The push thru KB does take some getting used to but it works. My device is not slow, does not hang, and email, SMS, GPS, camera, video, speaker phone, media player all work just fine. The browser is definitly not as good as on my IPOD touch but hopefully that will evolve over time.
Bjorn Tipling (URL) said:
Uh, ok. You don't have to worry about me, if the damned log in isn't fixed on this site I wont be commenting anymore.
Joe M. said:
I just want to ask (being a new BB user and still waiting for my Storm to arrive) - How many of the folks who are complaining about a revision 1 device had purchased a "bug" and "issue" free iPhone when they were first launched? People who jump onto a band wagon to buy something because it's new knowing full well it's a first shot at something really shouldn't be spouting off about issues and problems.

I'll have my Storm shortly and will give it a fair chance regardless of the 30,000 complaints I've been reading about on forums such as these. I mean come on - how long did you all wait for Windows 95? or XP or Mac OS X (ALL VERY bugging in their first releases). Did you complain then too? Really - if these problems bother you folks so much - wait for Rev. 2 to come out next time. Then you have a right to complain.

Have a Happy Turkey Day on that note!
Valace2 said:
As a dedicated Blackberry user now using a Storm, I find his article extremely distasteful and grossly biased. He slams RIM for stepping outside the box and creating a touchscreen device. I am sorry, in Mr Pogue's world everything is perfect and doesn't ever need to change, so why should RIM. Mr. Pogue's problem with the Storm is that it is not an IPHONE. I find that to be extremely distasteful. Be honest with your readers. He spends almost the entire article stating that, "it doesn't do this like the Iphone, or that like the Iphone, and it doesn't have Wifi". Thank god people like him don't dictate what goes to market because if he had that kind of power, every single one of us would suffer through AT&T's poor network coverage and would be crawling all over each other to get into the nearest McDonalds to leach off of their Wife. As a writer for the New York Times I would have expected more.
jj said:
I do have to agree the storm is a dud, my friend purchase the storm and returned it already. It's just another phone trying to beat up the iphone. Only verizon fans will enjoy it, but overall my friend had non stop problems with it, he just went back with his lg flip.
Frankc said:
I've had the my bb storm since friday. I had a treo smartphone but have also used the Iphone since a couple of family members have them. My experience so far has been a very good one. I have noticed a little lag once in awhile but it's not that bad. I have read about other issues but of the 5 that we purchased for my company we are pretty happy with them. Once we had time to really use them and type with them we have no problem with the keyboards. It took some a little longer than others to get comfortable with the idea of click screen. I have to say I like both phones and would recommend either phone. There is an over the air update coming in early December. I remember the Iphone having a few issues when it was first released.
Mike said:
I've a Blackberry Bold for about 3 weeks. A bit large, but otherwise a truly an awesome device. Fast, stable, kickass keyboard. For email and web browsing, it's perfect. And it has WiFi! Glad I didn't wait for the Storm. Pogue loved the Bold...so he's definitely not anti-RIM.
Hari Seldon said:
It seems that nowadays when people disagree with an opinion or article, ad hominem attacks are the norm. If someone is not complimentary about Rimm, Microsoft etc, they are OBVIOUSLY Apple fanboys. This is pathetic, what is wrong with you people? Are you so insecure in your tech choices that contrary views are somehow heretical?

Like I said, pathetic


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mobileguy said:
The Storm is a viable alternative to the iPhone (in some ways better, like once you get used to text input), provided they can iron out the kinks and quick.

Pogue was nitpicking in a lot of cases:

1) "no keyboard" - keep up with the times, Mr Pogue, RIM has implemented a totally different input system that closely approximates sensations of physical keys allowing a more natural interaction than the iPhone

2) "email" - yes, and email isn't the only application where it seemed the dual-touch nature of the interaction was not optimized... clearly RIM did need more time to work out bugs and further optimize the experience

3) "vertical keyboard" - RIM has used this configuration for quite some time on other devices with hardware keys (so does this contradict #1??) and this implementation is actually quite good. I personally prefer T9 text input to RIM's solution - shame it wasn't used instead

4) "slow" - the one I used usually wasn't slow... based on what I've read, it seems like some are, most aren't... chalk another point up to releasing the device to early

5) "navigation" - takes practice and getting used to, though sometimes it could be better spaced (there's minimum recommended target sizes for touch screens... heck, even Apple has guidelines of something like 44x44 pixels) so he's partially correct

6) "no wifi" - meh. a big deal for some, not a big deal for others. personally it's not a big deal, but it would be a welcome addition

7) "bugs" - Similar to slow. I had one lock-up in the time I used it. Others claim not to have such things. All in all it points to releasing a bit too early.

Again, the Storm is a viable alternative to the iPhone. I would not buy one now as I'd wait for some updates (Apple has updated their stuff, too, remember). I think it's a great device that holds a lot of promise, and I've been in the mobile business for 10 years. Text input on the Storm requires long-term usage for optimal results given it's currently-unique implementation - a reviewer picking it up and giving it a go will only result in frustration (even though it's typical for novel input methods)..

I also wouldn't personally buy an iPhone yet because it just doesn't do "it" for me (and this is even with free usage for my job). I'm hard to please.
VasyaDC said:
I desperately wanted to replace my (almost three-year-old) Blackberry 8703e and have been holding out for the Storm for what seems like an eternity. I didn't really like the iPhone when it came out because it's email is not at all comparable to the functionality of the 8703e and one really can't be a hyper-user of email, productivity software and text on a touch phone. Long story short, I was almost desperate to love this phone, but then a funny thing happened: I actually tried this thing out and...it really, really sucks. It would have taken a real clunker for me to walk out of the Verizon store w/o/ the Storm, and a crappy product is exactly what RIM delivered. I don't want to wait another year for a possibly viable phone, so I'll probably get the Bold. It's not exactly sexy and I don't want to switch carriers, but it really seems reliable and great at the one thing I need out of my phone: business functionality.
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vikram said:
Pogue is an apple insider. He is scared of the fact that iPhone may have competition. Get real Pogueboy.
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9equals8.com (URL) said:
I went with the Bold over the Storm for many of the reasons he points out in his review. The biggest reason is that I am a "power-emailer" and wanted a physical keyboard, which let's me draft long emails very quickly. I am VERY happy with my Bold, although the larger screen on the Storm/iPhone is pretty appealing. The reality is that none of these devices is best for everyone. A lot of which device you choose should depend on what your primary uses will be.
Lee said:
I guess Obama is the iPhone of the political world. NY Times endorses CRAP all the time, and pans great device and people as well!
audi said:
I really have no problem with most of David Pogue’s(Iphone fan boy) review, but as a reviewer, isn’t he supposed to be impartial to the whole product??? because all it seems to me is that he has only reviewed the faults of the storm. I’m sure he didn’t do the same for all the other phones or products he has reviewed!!! for example, his review of the Iphone wouldn’t be based solely on its shortcoming like you can’t type messages in landscape, you can copy and paste, the camera isn’t up to scratch, you can’t take video, you can’t send MMS, no removable battery etc to name a few and i am sure there were various bugs as well which have been fixed in the firmware update just like the storm. I am not saying the storm doesn’t have many faults, but i am disappointed that his review is not a complete one and sort of a witch hunt against the storm(RIM)!!! I would personally not recommend that review, there are better one out there which give a fully picture of the whole product-good side and bad. And for any product that a consumer is thinking on buying, try it yourself first and see how YOU feel about the product. The costumer is always right, not the reviewer!!!
dee said:
I have a pearl and although it took a while to get used to the suretype keyboard, once you get used to it, its pretty fast. The problem with BB is that it has a high learning curve, and most ppl dont have the patience for it.

I think pouge didn't give enough chance to the suretype qwerty keyboard. the more one uses the keyboard the more the keyboard learns from the user and the words and its easier to type. I also frequently type in Turkish and teach my phone turkish words and now i can actually use suretype to type in turkish as well, instead of switching to multitap mode.

And like someone else said it before, if you don't want to put in the effort to get used to suretype then just enable multitap. But keep in mind that this is a "SMART PHONE"! It takes time to learn it and get used to it, just like with a new operating system on a computer.

When office 2007 came out ppl didnt just ditch the idea because they have to learn how to do stuff again.

it doesn't take months to get used to it, just couple days maybe a week for a non tech savvy person.

try it out!
e said:
also, there is an option in the menu that you can go in and add vocabulary to your phone so when you type it suretype detects it. but i dont really use that option. to me its easier to teach my phone the words while typing them out.
Roland said:
I was waiting for the Storm to come here in Canada (Rogers network), but I was assuming it will have the same features as the Iphone except with expansion slots, tactile screen, and more open software (no need to jailbreak)...

But when I heard it doesn't have WIFI, I opted for the Bold (for my brother in law) instead... WIFI is the future!!! RIM is stupid not to include this in the Storm if it expects to be in the same league as the IPhone.. I have an Iphone and I use it a lot at home... running VNC on it to control all the computers I have and even at work... Lots of developers are moving a lot of stuffs to the IPhone just because it can replace the desktop PC... Storm, without WIFI, is basically just a touch screen cellphone... Eventually WIFI will be as prevalent as a GSM tower, and VOIP will kill all those high toll charges...

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