After the flurry of bad reviews, customer complains and less than forthcoming firmware update management it is no wonder that the BlackBerry Storm sales are far from what Apple sold with the iPhone.
The WSJ runs a story that claims that RIM sold 500,000 BlackBerry Storm smartphones in the first month. The iPhone had sales of 2.6m units in the first Quarter. The Journal also reports that the marketing campaign for the BlackBerry Storm run up a bill of more than $100 million. The Storm sells for $199.99. With that money spent on advertising, Verizon could have given the BlackBerry Storm away for free to the first 500,000 Storm owners. To give away the Storm for free would have been fair as the device still needed serious beta testing.
RIM's co-Chief Executive Jim Balsillie even says that shipping buggy smartphones is the "new reality". If this is the new BlackBerry reality than the first users of a new BlackBerry should get at least the phone for free or better get money paid to test the phone for the first 6 months.
More BlackBerry Storm News.