RIM announcing BlackBerry Storm-alike for U.S. at WES 2009, more devices
Look, we really don't want to do this to you, (well, we kind of do) but we've just got the word from one of our RIM ninjas that there will be a BlackBerry Storm-type device announced at WES 2009.
Context & Ripple Effects
RIM's touchscreen ambitions have been building for a year: the company first signaled touch-based BlackBerry plans in late 2007 with its early touchscreen roadmap, and by October 2008 the Storm 9500 and 9530 had leaked in full detail, followed by hands-on impressions of the 9500. This report adds the commercial layer — a Storm-type device aimed specifically at the U.S. market, staged for WES 2009, the same event where RIM unveiled the Bold in May (the 9000's WES 2008 announcement established WES as RIM's preferred launch stage).
First-order effects
- U.S. customers would get an official, carrier-backed Storm-class touchscreen BlackBerry rather than an import or rumor-cycle device, with RIM using WES 2009 as the formal reveal venue.
- RIM's launch calendar now centers on WES as its flagship hardware moment two years running, concentrating press and carrier attention on a single spring event.
Second-order effects
- A U.S.-focused Storm push puts RIM in direct lineup competition with Apple's iPhone on carrier shelves, forcing carriers and rivals to treat touchscreen messaging devices as a distinct category rather than a niche.
- Additional device announcements alongside it would extend the leaked 2009 roadmap — variants like a Storm slider and touchscreen Bold — multiplying RIM's engineering and carrier-certification workload across multiple form factors at once.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, RIM's identity shifts from a keyboard-first enterprise vendor to a multi-form-factor consumer smartphone maker, a transition whose success depends on whether touchscreen BlackBerrys can hold onto the corporate base while courting retail buyers.
- Carrier-anchored launch events like WES could become the template for how hardware makers sequence U.S. rollouts, tying device reveals to the operators who control distribution.
The trend: RIM's steady march from keyboard-only devices into a full touchscreen portfolio is one data point in the broader post-iPhone industry-wide shift toward touch as the default smartphone interface.