SkratchBoard.com

After a last-minute scramble to launch the buggy BlackBerry Storm with Verizon late last year, RIM’s Co-CEO Jim Balsillie was quoted by WSJ in saying that software glitches are part of the “new reality” of making complex cellphones in large volumes. Wow.

While we certainly appreciate the complexity in building advanced mobile devices, that’s certainly different from saying that consumers should expect devices to be buggy when they are shipped. What an irresponsible thing for Balsillie to say. RIM’s first entry into the large touchscreen phone market with the BlackBerry Storm is already off to a very rough start, and instead of taking responsibility for the poor product quality, Balsillie is blaming “complexity”. He is certainly not representing the company well, and we are sure that he just lost a lot of respect from many folks.

We have also been playing with the BlackBerry Storm here at SkratchBoard.com. We were even planning on writing up a review on it. Unfortunately, the device is so bad that we couldn’t even get ourselves to use it for an extended period of time. When we read what a long-time Verizon customer wrote about the Storm: “I found myself wanting to throw it in the ocean due to my frustration with its overall usability,” we second this thought. To us, the Storm is a failed device. Buried in the hype of large touchscreen phones, RIM rushed to the market with a device that lacks 2 of the best features that their customers love: a great thumb-friendly keyboard, and the awesome “pearl” roller ball. BlackBerry Storm also lacks wifi, haptic touch is no better than other touchscreens, and the quality of the user interface is terrible.

BlackBerry fans, stick to your Bold, Curve or Pearl for now.