Vodafone is the only telco in Australia to offer the hot new BlackBerry Storm touchscreen smartphone. We've looked at how the pricing stacks up against the iPhone 3G.
Come December 1, the iPhone will have its first real dose of real competition. No, not from another "me too" Windows Mobile device with an animated skin on top, or even from yet another S60 Nokia, but from Research in Motion, a stalwart of the smartphone industry, which is about to unleash its first touchscreen model called the Storm.
We've already covered the Storm in some detail. On paper, the hardware specs look great; fast 3G networking, a stunning display, GPS and a new touchscreen that actually provides feedback (in the form of a tiny vibration when you click).
Putting hardware and interface differences to one side, let's see how the pricing stacks up against the Storm's main rival, the iPhone 3G from Apple.
Apple and RIM come from two very different places. Apple has long been the master of media players. The iPod and the iPhone are perfect examples, both featuring strong multimedia capabilities. But Apple was late to the phone party, and while the iPhone now offers reasonable 'phone and messaging' functionality, it is arguably not on par with BlackBerry.
Blackberry maker RIM has gained most of its success in the enterprise space and are experts in mobile messaging. It has a reputation from customers for building solid, dependable phones with great physical keyboards. The recent growth from RIM has come from a push in to consumer markets, but at best, Blackberry multimedia functionality is average when compared to peers in the marketplace.
I've no doubt that some traditional BlackBerry users are still in a state of shock that BlackBerry has dared to create a full touchscreen model. But in reality, it had no choice. In just 15 months, Apple has gone from having no market share to being the leading manufacturer of smartphones, beating even BlackBerry. RIM had to respond, and it has with the Storm.
Don't kid yourself that the Storm is a business phone. While it may carry a business price tag (like the iPhone 3G), it's squarely aimed at consumers. So how do the plans stack up against comparable plans for the iPhone? In brief: not very well.
Vodafone, an iPhone reseller and the exclusive supplier of the Storm in Australia offers a $69/month cap plan for both the Storm and the iPhone 3G.
When you commit to a 24 month contract with Vodafone, the Storm handset is $0, while an 8GB iPhone 3G will cost you $2.88/mth. The Storm plan comes with unlimited 'BlackBerry email and internet', however 'Unlimited Internet' only covers using the Internet via the BlackBerry browser on the device.
Video-streaming and downloading files larger than 3MB, are not covered within the cap. Vodafone is pushing people who need more 'unlimited' data towards a 100MB Internet bolt-on for an extra $9.95/month. (Note, this is more expensive than even Telstra, which offers 150MB for $10.)
Although Vodafone used to offer a $49/mth iPhone 3G plan, this has now been discontinued, leaving the $69/mth iPhone plan as the cheapest one. It comes with 250MB of data included, which covers anything you do on the phone, including browser, apps and email -- and for most people, this is effectively unlimited usage.
Step up to more expensive plans ($79, $99, $119 and $149) for the Storm and the iPhone and the iPhone begins to look much more attractive.
Firstly, an 8GB iPhone is free on any plan above $79 (a 16GB iPhone will set you back $121 but remember the Storm only comes with a measly 1GB on board memory, and a 'bonus' 8GB memory card), and secondly, as you move up through the plans the included data goes from 400MB on the $79/month plan all the way up to 2GB on the $149/month.
Compare this to the Storm plans, where even on the most expensive $149/month you'll be expected to shell out extra for data that you use outside of 'the BlackBerry browser, or for video streaming or downloading large files (larger than 3MB).' Additionally, while the Storm comes with unlimited email we've heard from Vodafone that 'YouTube can be done through the BlackBerry browser but isn't covered under the 'Unlimited' cap and will be charged at 50 cents per MB.'
Another thing to note is that the iPhone has built-in Wifi while the Storm doesn't, so if you expect to be doing extensive browsing on your device you need to be wary of the potential for extra fees. These scenarios also exclude the potential extra fees that users will cop when the Storm App Store goes live, as we've yet to see any concrete information on this yet.
If Storm tanks in Australia because of the relatively crummy pricing compared to iPhone 3G, RIM has no-one else but itself to blame. Doing an exclusive deal with one carrier means there's no competition in the marketplace, so there's no pressure on Voda to offer great plans on this handset.