Vodafone will today put pressure on Apple's iPhone with news that it has clinched an exclusive deal to offer the first touchscreen phone made by mobile email specialist BlackBerry in time for Christmas.
The BlackBerry Storm, which has a revolutionary "clickable" touchscreen that prevents a user accidentally sending an email or making a call, will be free for anyone willing to sign up to a £35 a month contract with Vodafone . A pre-pay version is also being planned.
The device is aimed at the consumer market rather than the corporate world, which is already dominated by existing BlackBerry devices with their trademark tiny keypads. It faces serious competition in the festive market from the Apple phone and two other recently announced touchscreen devices: the G1, which has Google's Android software and is exclusive to T-Mobile, and the 5800 XpressMusic from Nokia, which Orange confirmed yesterday it will be offering, although it is unclear if it will be out by Christmas.
But Jens Schulte-Bockum, Vodafone's global head of terminals, has no doubt of the BlackBerry Storm's potential. "This will be one of the best sellers if not the bestseller in the contract market for Christmas," he said. "We have very aggressive plans for it."
"I see this as a mainstream product in the consumer market," added Nick Read, who heads Vodafone in the UK but will shortly move to run its Asian businesses. "You have all the robustness of BlackBerry but with multi-media and you have a touchscreen that actually works for texting and email. From my perspective, this is really meeting the needs of a more sophisticated consumer."
Vodafone asked BlackBerry to come up with an exclusive device about a year ago, after it failed to secure an exclusive deal for the iPhone in any of its markets. But the Storm is not just an iPhone look-a-like. In dumping its trademark keypad, BlackBerry has developed a touchscreen that prevents a user making the sort of slip-up that is all too easy with competing devices of 'accidentally' clicking on a link or phone number by merely navigating the screen by touch.
The whole touchscreen on the Storm is one large mouse button, so touching a button or key is not enough to activate any function - the user needs to press down on the item to set it off. In the past, business users have held off using touchscreen devices because of what RIM co-chief executive, Mike Lazaridis, describes as "this problem where navigation and confirmation were inter-mingled in the same action".
Vodafone has been allowing pre-registration for the device on its UK website and is already getting 1,000 applications a day.
Some analysts are likely to question the advisability of launching such a high-end device in the current market conditions, but Read is undeterred.
"There are certain sectors, such as financial services, where there will be job losses and they all have BlackBerrys so there will be a degree of loss there," he said. "But it is so outweighed by the potential to go down into small business and consumer."
The Storm contract is cheaper than both the G1, which T-Mobile is expected to make free for anyone on a £40 a month deal, and the iPhone, which O2 gives away free with a £45 a month contract. But both T-Mobile and O2 only tie-in customers for 18 months, whereas Vodafone demands they sign up for two years.
