Does the BlackBerry Storm's Lack of Wi-Fi Matter?

The BlackBerry Prevails

There will never be a BlackBerry killer, even though no brand has been the subject of such well-funded and aggressive efforts to marginalize it. Push and enterprise messaging, Java, a thumb keyboard, and convenience buttons are commonplace, but a vendor can do all of these and still fail to break the BlackBerry's hold on the enterprise market or users' undying loyalty. That defies logic.

The BlackBerry is slow. It lacks native apps, Flash, an AJAX browser, a GUI that makes you go "oooooh," and with most BlackBerry handsets, Wi-Fi. People don't trample one another to gawk at your new BlackBerry, and people don't camp out overnight to buy the latest model. Few BlackBerry owners have ever downloaded a third-party application. And even though they're capable of it, I've never seen a BlackBerry playing a movie or used as a music player. What the BlackBerry can't do that the iPhone, Windows Mobile, Android, and Symbian phones can makes a long list, but it doesn't matter. BlackBerry is synonymous with mobile messaging. Only RIM could break that association, and even when RIM ventured into the consumer space, and now that it's in the touchscreen market, RIM never alters its core recipe.

Hand a Storm to a BlackBerry user and the first thing most of them will do is fire up mail and tip the display to landscape to see if widescreen means that they can see more of the Subject line in their inbox view. Can you still use it with one hand? Can you still type with your thumbs? Can you still set up an unlimited number of mailboxes and define client-side rules? Can you still easily scale fonts systemwide to make mail, contacts, and appointments readable at a distance or to cram more text onto the screen? Does a check mark next to an outbound e-mail still mean that the recipient absolutely, positively has it? Does it still run forever on a charge? All right then. The BlackBerry Storm is still a BlackBerry.

It's awfully handsome, it's got GUI frosting, and it costs only $199. Nice. But if RIM drained one iota of BlackBerry-ness out of the Storm, the product would be DOA. You can't copy it, you can't kill it, and no matter how hard reviewers stress the lack of Wi-Fi, a BlackBerry without Wi-Fi is like an iPhone 3G without Java or a Wii without a Blu-ray drive.

As a postscript, the BlackBerry Storm lacks Wi-Fi because Verizon didn't ask for it. When Verizon's exclusive on the 9500-series design expires, any wireless operator that wants Wi-Fi will get it. Wi-Fi handsets will cost more -- I estimate $249 or $299 -- and Wi-Fi may be tossed in to mask shortcomings in coverage plans such as tethering prohibition and low monthly transfer caps.