RIM claims 'bugginess' is the new smartphone reality
Published: 27 January, 2009
RIM's co-CEO Jim Balsillie has come clean about problems that dogged the launch of the company's new BlackBerry flagship, the Storm. Conceding that the handset had been rushed to market, hitting the critical US 'Black Friday' deadline "by the skin of our teeth", he was not apologizing for the resulting bugs and patches, but claiming this was now the "new reality" of the high end phone business for everyone.
The huge pressure to get new smartphones on to the market ahead of rivals will make bugs and incomplete platforms, followed by a string of patches and updates, the norm for consumers, implied Balsillie, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the Storm, whose debut last quarter was marred by reports of 'bugginess' and high return rates, especially at its US carrier, Verizon Wireless. The phone was co-developed with Vodafone and heavily marketed by that operator, and the bulk of the reported problems seem to have been on the US CDMA network.
The software industry has got used to the idea of the third release of a product being the one that really works, and this culture does seem to be infiltrating the handset - look at the bugs in the first release of the iPhone 3G, or the fact that the Android platform was rushed to market without some basic features, such as full Bluetooth support.
Most of this 'bugginess' is software related, another sign of how cellphones are starting to resemble PCs. So, although Verizon and Vodafone claim Storm return rates are normal for a smartphone (in single digits, though higher than a simpler handset), RIM has already issued updates to fix some of the glitches with Storm, and more should be available this month. Among the problems reported in the WSJ are "clunky" touchscreen typing functionality and slow performance with basic tasks like taking photos.
The Storm was launched with a $100m marketing campaign and is estimated to have sold 500,000 units in the US in its first month, which would be a decent start, but well behind the 2.4m 3G iPhones that AT&T shipped in that device's first quarter. Balsillie said RIM considers the Storm "an overwhelming success" and is making 250,000 devices a week to meet demand, which would add up to about 3m units per quarter - a figure that could propel the BlackBerry line as a whole ahead of Apple, which shipped 4.36m iPhones in the fourth quarter.
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