Prior to trying out what first appears to be an iPhone clone, I have to admit that I am an iPhone user. I think you need to be one to adequately try out the new Blackberry Storm because this is precisely the market that the new Blackberry Storm is going for.

Tens of thousands of previous Blackberry users have flocked to the iPhone since the launch of the 3G iPhone and their recently introduced Enterprise capabilities to rival Blackberry. The Storm is Blackberry’s attempts to stave off Apple’s erosion of these core business customers.

Pros:

It has a lot going for it - battery life twice as long as the iPhone for example. It has GPS as standard, speakers are just as good as the iPhone and as you’d expect comes with the complete business-ready back-end Blackberry infrastructure.

Cons:

The click screen is ghastly!! I don’t care if the reviewers at PhoneScoop or CNET tell me that it just “takes a bit of getting used to”. A clear attempt to try and please everyone - and pleasing no one. Why try and re-invent the wheel? And where’s the WiFi?

When it comes to the interface and navigation, changing from the iPhone to the Blackberry Storm is a bit like dumping your beautiful kind and intuitive girlfriend and dating her ugly dense sister instead.

With the iPhone, total intuitiveness comes as standard. This type of ease of use has always been in Apple’s DNA since the Macintosh Performa days.

I had to spend some time tracking through Blackberry’s instructions to accomplish tasks which should have been straight forward but weren’t. And here’s my point: As a business person, I am busy and don’t have time to try and figure out the workings of another gadget. I need it to work and do the job - seamlessly.

The Blackberry has none of the intuitiveness of the iPhone, nor the navigational ease whilst web browsing is plain clunky.

It’s Blackberry saying to die hard Blackberry loyalist “don’t migrate to the iPhone, we’ve got something similar - without addressing the key issues as to why users are migrating to the iPhone in the first place. Plain and Simple : it is better.

Since the launch of the 1st generation iPhone over a year ago Blackberry have had plenty of time to dissect and scrutinize it to come up with something better. Simply speaking the Storm had to be better - people upgrade to better models, they don’t downgrade to a something less - and the Blackberry Storm is quite simply something less.

At trade 2 save we predict many of these will be sold and automatically handed out as corporate phone contacts get renewed. However, I also predict a lot of them are going to wind up being traded in here and upgraded to an iPhone.

I suspect the main reason for picking a Blackberry Storm over the Apple iPhone 3G is going to be network. If your company runs with Verizon it’s highly unlikely that your IT department is going to switch the entire network simply because you find the click clumsy and the navigation a little sluggish.

trade 2 save will buy pre-owned Blackberry Storms along with Apple iPhones and the full range of other consumer electronics games movies and music. By trading in, other customers can buy these goods from us with a warranty in graded conditions, thereby saving money and reducing the impact the consumer electronics industry has on the environment.