Patti Mistick knows she has a problem.
On Friday, the Pittsburgh Pirates' employee services director got a sneak preview by Verizon Wireless of the new BlackBerry Storm smartphone. Then she had to go from PNC Park -- where the preview was held -- to her office and face a group of Storm wannabees.
"It's absolutely awesome," Mistick said about her initial response to Research in Motion Ltd.'s new, do-everything handheld device. "My biggest problem with the Storm is going to be holding people back from wanting to get one right away. It's more than I ever thought it would be."
Responses like Mistick's are just what partners Verizon Wireless and Research in Motion, or RIM, are hoping will be abundant beginning Friday. That's the official roll-out day for the Storm at Verizon Wireless stores, including 25 in Western Pennsylvania, and online.
The price will be $199, after a $50 rebate, plus a two-year contract with Verizon Wireless.
"Verizon went to RIM and said, 'We need this, this, this and this in a hand-held,'" said Robb Moretti, Verizon Wireless' director of data sales for Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. "They hit everything we wanted and more."
Moretti admits what his company wanted was a device to match up against the Apple iPhone, which partners with Verizon's archcompetitor, AT&T.
Among the services the Storm offers with data and voice plans are e-mail, telephone with global capabilities, text, picture and video messaging, instant messaging, a Web browser, camera with built-in flash and digital zoom, broadband access capabilities, and Verizon's VZ Navigator capability.
"It's sweet spot is it's all-in-one, and it's a BlackBerry, which means device security," said Moretti.
Experts, while unable yet to test-drive the Storm, are impressed with what they've seen so far.
"We haven't reviewed the Storm yet, but I did see it and think it has a lot of potential," said Ken German, CNET.com's senior editor for cellphones. "Obviously, they are going after the iPhone. It's definitely more flashy and more media-friendly than anything BlackBerry has introduced before."
One interesting feature of the Storm is that when the touch-screen keyboard comes up, as each letter is pushed, the entire screen moves, giving the sensation of a real computer keyboard.
"I wonder how users are going to take to the fact that the whole display moves when you use the keyboard," German said.
"The Storm plus the (BlackBerry) Bold will keep Apple and RIM in a horse race for the foreseeable future," said CNET.com staff writer Tom Krazit. "Rim has the business high ground, Apple has the consumer high ground, and they're both heading toward the middle."
Unknown is whether the economy will allow consumers to cooperate.
Nokia Corp., the world's largest cell phone maker, on yesterday downgraded its outlook for industrywide cell phone volumes for the fourth quarter, citing pressure from the economic crisis and currency volatility.
The Finnish company warned in a statement that the rapid changes in consumer spending are likely to hit the mobile device market.
It expects industry mobile device volumes in the fourth quarter to come in below previous forecasts, to around 330 million in the fourth quarter and 1.24 billion for the year. It had earlier forecast 1.26 billion units for the year.
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