Submitted by Yi-Wyn Yen01.26.2009
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This prediction is closed and is in the process of being judged.
Verizon has reportedly sold about a half miillion units of the BlackBerry Storm in its first month. The smartphone went on sale on Nov. 21, 2008, a week before Black Friday. Research in Motion claims that the Storm is so popular that it is making 250,000 of the touchscreen BlackBerry devices each week to keep up with demand.
Sales aren't as strong as the Apple iPhone 3G. The Storm has been plagued with some technical glitches and the BlackBerry App store has yet to launch. The Wall Street Journal reports Storm sales are "well off the pace" of 2.4 million iPhone 3G devices sold in its first quarter on the market. Verizon is the exclusive carrier of the Storm.
Prediction: Verizon sells 1.5 million units or more of the BlackBerry Storm in the first quarter of 2009.
Image: StrebKR/Flickr
Current Community Consensus 44%
Prediction Statistics
| Betting Closes: | Apr 20 2009 | Current Consensus: | 43.78% | Total Bets: | 20 |
| Today's Change: | 0% | ||||
| Life Time High: | 57.44% | ||||
| Life Time Low: | 28.91% |
Price History
Comments
Another rushed-to-market iPhone killer bites the dust.
Apple's Steve Jobs set the standard, and continues to stay on the same course: Forget about competing; just do what you do best. And you know what? If Apple wanted to do so? They have no debt and so much cash, that they could become one of the nation's biggest banks right now.
What irks me most about the Storm is that so many people were so willing to bash reviewers who forewarned them that the Storm was a broken toy out of the box -- most notably, David Pogue -- yet they not only bashed him and others who provided similar reviews, but then went out and bought one anyway.
Nose? How does it feel to be disenfaced to spite your previous owner's self?
Worse than this, is the so-called "reviewers" and self-reported Storm owners who, seemingly paid by the word, told us how much they loved their Storm; how much better it is than the iPhone; how much better it is than anything else available in the Universe. These people are not only reprehensible for their moral failings; they're disgusting examples of what the most mean-spirited, most greedy and most despicable among us can be.
Stupidity sometimes kills people. Other times, it just helps people part with their money in a speedy fashion. But those who suffer from it ultimately get both.
VZ announced that it's sold 1M BB Storms sold through January. The Storm came out Nov. 21, so that's an average of 0.5M a month. If the Storm can continue that pace for next two months, this prediction will be in business.
True but Blackberry Storm is more of a device catered towards folks in the corporate world as compared to iPhone which has a more consumer feel. As such, the surge of sales would primarily come from companies upgrading the Blackberries for its folks. That said, with all the job reductions and cost cutting, upgrading Blackberry may take a backseat. IMO, Blackberry Storm may not be able to sustain or exceed the 500K unit sales/month for Feb and March.
@Yi-Wyn, what will TIS depend on for judgment? Unless explicit news are released regarding 1Q Blackberry Storm sales (not shipped), we will need to find exact counts for January/Feb/March. The Dec news about 500K is an estimate. We don't quite know how many out of the 1M are sold in January.
Most likely, Verizon Q1 earnings will report sales for the quarter. That is why I timed the prediction around when VZ reports.
Readers: There is going to be a delay judging this one. Verizon did not break out Storm sales in its Q1 numbers. I can try contacting the company, but there is no guarantee that I will get a reply.
One thing to note is that new mobile users for the company totaled 1.3 million in the quarter:
http://www.cedmagazine.com/News-Wireless-Verizon-Q1-results-iPhone-04270...
Even if every single one of them got a Storm, there would still be a shortfall of 200,000 units to make the prediction come true. On the other hand, that represents just 1% of existing subscribers upgrading to a Storm.
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard
twitter.com/ilamont
Readers: Bad news. I contacted Verizon, but an employee said the company won't give out this data -- they say they rarely share specific sales figures of any Verizon Wireless products.
Still determining how to handle this one -- wait and see, or end now without judgment.
Ian Lamont
Managing Editor
The Industry Standard
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