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

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]