Blackberry vs. iPhone

Some interesting points on the evolution of the Blackberry line of smartphones. The Storm seems to be plagued by User Interface (UI) problems, bugginess and a lag in performance. Hopefully, they can address some of these issues with additional software updates. I've recorded a video interview with a student demoing the Storm, that I will post once I've cleaned it up. Rob Pegoraro - BlackBerrys Again Get Sleeker but Can't Challenge iPhone

Research in Motion's BlackBerry was once the dump truck of smartphones: ugly but useful at its assigned task.

Then a few years ago, sleeker models like the Pearl and Curve brought some style to the package. Now two new camera phones -- the BlackBerry Bold 9000, which shipped in early November, and the BlackBerry Storm 9530, which debuted later that month and received a bug-fix software update last week -- bring some of the same refinement to the software inside that package.

These two represent an impressive advance over the BlackBerrys of two years ago, not to mention the competing Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices.

Problem is, Palm and Microsoft are no longer RIM's main competition. Apple's iPhone is, and both the Bold and the Storm fall short of the standard set by that device and other new contenders, such as Google's Android phone.