Report: Verizon and RIM "rushed" buggy Storm to market

Mon Jan 26, 2009 10:59AM EST

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Insiders claim the Storm—slammed by reviewers and users alike for its sluggish, glitchy performance—barely made it to stores in time for Black Friday last year, and as a consequence, it wasn't quite ready for prime time.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Storm carrier Verizon Wireless and BlackBerry manufacturer RIM "rushed the device to market despite glitches in the stability of the phone's operating system," according to unnamed "people close to the launch."

Why the big rush? Turns out that both Verizon and RIM were "determined to release the Storm in time for the holidays"—and indeed, RIM co-CEO Jim Basillie admitted to the Journal that the two phone giants hit the Storm's November 21 release date "by the skin of their teeth."

As it turns out, the Storm sold about 500,000 units during its first month, according to the Journal (Verizon is set to release official numbers Tuesday). Pretty solid—although at that rate, it probably won't catch the iPhone 3G, which (as the WSJ notes) sold a whopping 2.4 million units during its first quarter.

To its credit, Verizon released a software update in December that smoothed out some of the Storm's kinks. However, while the firmware fix was certainly welcome, the whole "release it now, patch it later" thing is an insidious habit: It encourages sloppiness in the race to hit a looming release date, and it's seriously disrespectful of customers.

Also: You only get one chance at a first impression, and despite the recent software patches, the Storm is still known in tech circles as something of a lemon.

So, what do you think: Would you prefer manufactures to release their phones, games, etc. on time, but with bugs that'll need to be patched later, or would you rather wait longer for a finished product?

Related:
BlackBerry Storm Is Off To Bit of a Bumpy Start [The Wall Street Journal]

Comments on Report: Verizon and RIM "rushed" buggy Storm to market

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  • 1 Posted by highvoltage23 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:19PM EDT Report Abuse

    Even if (Company X) has a product that they feel is perfect, there will still be issues/glitches with the product. There should still be beta testers, but as soon as the beta testers are comfortable with the product, then launch it. There will be glitches that they missed. It is impossible to fix all problems before the release of any product. I mean, look at iTunes. There have been over ahundred updates since it was conception. That being said, I would prefer the public report issues. So after beta testing is complete, LAUNCH IT...

  • 2 Posted by magpagbst on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:03PM EDT Report Abuse

    well . . . if the customer service is solid (i.e. recognizing and promptly dealing with glitches, etc), i'm cool with releasing a product post moderate beta-testing . . . in this tech-driven world, the ultimate beta-testing is that of the early adopters . . . most people are aware of this . . . anyway . . . i'm on my fourth lg voyager from verizon . . . the digitizer kept failing . . . i returned it each time to verizon and it was replaced with data transfer with no questions asked . . . the cuurent voyager is now 7 months old and i've had no issues . . . it is a great phone!

  • 3 Posted by wolverinemarky on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:49PM EDT Report Abuse

    i would like to wait for a finished product but will take something that came out of beta testing that isnt as buggy but still has a couple that can be fixed later with patches. no way to iron out every bug in any product you come out with

  • 4 Posted by dmx_92145 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm sure they would say that President Barack Obama and his insistence on how much he depends on his Blackberry and how he practically made an executive order to keep it once he became President had NOTHING to do with this rush job.

  • 5 Posted by cel7gevolution on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:20PM EDT Report Abuse

    Iphone has had how many remakes now. Its like the 360 and ps3 can't expect the same numbers to sell if one been out for a year already. I like mines so far and it works for me stationed here in South Korea.

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