RIM could be looking to deliver a BlackBerry Storm 2 this September – and this time it’ll dodge some of the criticism that dogged the original model by including Wi-Fi.
The news comes from SlashGear, who claim a reliable source has informed them about the existence of the BlackBerry Storm 2, citing Wi-Fi as a nailed-on new feature – but hinting that it wouldn’t be the only one.
While the original Storm has only been out since November 2008, it makes a lot of sense that RIM should want to unleash a BlackBerry Storm 2 so soon. For one thing, the first Storm wasn’t much of a critical success, with Stephen Fry calling it “shockingly bad”, many users complaining about buggy performance, and the touchscreen and sluggish menu system coming in for a lot of flak – especially in comparison to the super-swish user-friendliness of Apple’s multitouch iPhone interface.
The recent launch of RIM’s BlackBerry App World has given the Storm’s fortunes a boost, but there are still a lot of ways in which a BlackBerry Storm 2 could improve upon it – we’ve even thought of five ourselves.
Also, the fact that Apple is almost certainly preparing a brand new iPhone for launch this summer means that RIM might feel it’s high time to unleash the BlackBerry Storm 2, or risk falling even further behind the Cupertino company in the touchscreen phone market.
One last thing SlashGear’s source told them is that the BlackBerry Storm 2 would be exclusive to Verizon, suggesting that like the original Storm it will be exclusive to Vodafone (Verizon’s parent company) in the UK.
Out TBC | £TBC | BlackBerry (via SlashGear)
