The Jason Salas Experience

RIM's newest smartphone is an obvious overdue reaction to the global iPhone craze; Verizon's trying to recoup some of the chutzpah it lost to AT&T and T-Mobile.  They just simply showed up too late to this Kool-Aid party...and they brought Juicy Juice.

I have an appreciation for the form factor a revolutionary device like Apple's iPhone/iTunes/AppStore telephony ecosystem brings to the table, and Google's Android mobile OS on the G1 has done a good job at emulating the touchscreen interface, auto-rotating screen orientation, use of an accelerometer for motion detection, and slick GPS functionality for location-aware features.  The Storm tries, too, but falls short.   It's just not the same.

That said, I'm a big fan of the software/hardware changes RIM made with the BlackBerry Bold.  That line can hold its own among its contemporaries (which notably doesn't include the iPhone or G1).  For me the Storm, being a guy who's extensively used the iPhone/iPod Touch UI, is an inferior disappointment.  While there's still no app store for the BlackBerry and that development platform essentially remaining a closed platform, it's hard to win me over.  And the IM and push e-mail that have been BlackBerry's bread-and-butter aren't that valuable to merit an upgrade investment as high as $700 for a device that pales by comparison to its touchscreen cousins.

I constantly find myself thinking "this isn't as good an experience as I would have on an iPhone" and I just can't break away from that.

But don't take my word for it - check it out for yourself.  I'm not abandoning RIM, I'm good with my Bold.  But for me, this Storm's far from perfect.