RIM CEO Mike Lazaridis defended his company against accusations that the BlackBerry Storm was rushed to store shelves unfinished, despite poor critical reception (The New York Times’ David Pogue in a review asked, “How did this thing ever reach the market?”) and user complaints of bugs. In a sit-down interview with Laptopmag.com, he claimed, “…of course we do a lot of testing every time before releasing these devices. And I think that it’s unfair. That’s our first touch product, and you know nobody gets it perfect out the door.”

He also reiterated RIM’s commitment to Storm users, claiming RIM “didn’t stop” and “never stopped” responding to complaints.

Lazaridis did not comment of any future products, including Storm 2 rumors. Though, he did claim they were working to improve the BlackBerry browser to offer a complete Web experience, and carrier billing for BlackBerry App World. App purchases previously ran through PayPal.

RIM may finally be properly responding to the heat from the iPhone 2009 and Palm Pre. A striking and welcome contrast to earlier in the year when RIM co-CEO Jim Balsillie claimed glitchy software was part of the “new reality” of making complicated smartphones.

Read the full interview at Laptopmag.com.