RIM’s co-CEO Jim Balsillie has come clean about problems that dogged the launch of the company’s new BlackBerry flagship, the Storm.

Conceding that the handset had been rushed to market, hitting the critical US ‘Black Friday’ deadline “by the skin of our teeth”, he was not apologizing for the resulting bugs and patches, but claiming this was now the “new reality” of the high end phone business for everyone.

The huge pressure to get new smartphones on to the market ahead of rivals will make bugs and incomplete platforms, followed by a string of patches and updates, the norm for consumers, implied Balsillie, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal about the Storm, whose debut last quarter was marred by reports of ‘bugginess’ and high return rates, especially at its US carrier, Verizon Wireless. The phone was co-developed with Vodafone and heavily marketed by that operator, and the bulk of the reported problems seem to have been on the US CDMA network.

Read more @ Rethink-Wireless

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BGR got some info that Verizon placed an ad in the Wall Street Journal. It wasn’t any old 300×300 ad, this one covered the entire page! Look at how the Storm seems to tower above all else.

I’d say that makes it pretty official. What a bummer it would be if they did all this and the Storm didn’t come out till late next year… . I have high hopes though!

If anyone else finds a Storm ad let me know!

Source – BGR

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(via MobileCrunch)