BlackBerry Storm unveiled to take on iPhone

Toronto, Oct 8 (IANS) To pitch itself in direct competition with Apple's iPhone3 and woo general consumers, Canadian wireless giant Research in Motion (RIM) Tuesday unveiled its much-expected first clickable touch-screen BlackBerry Storm.

The Waterloo-based wireless major said the new device would be available exclusively to Verizon customers in the US and Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand in the autumn.

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The announcement comes within days after RIM shares took a massive hit on the Toronto Stock Exchange after it reported less-than-expected profits.

RIM said its new revolutionary touch-screen is much like a physical keyboard and supports single-touch, multi-touch and gestures for efficient application navigation.

It said the user distinctly feels the screen being pressed and released with a gentle 'click' similar to the feeling of a key on a physical keyboard or a button on a mouse.

Other features include a built-in accelerometer that allows the touch-screen to automatically switch between landscape mode and portrait mode when the user rotates the handset.

RIM said navigating web sites is fast and easy with the Storm's touch-screen interface that lets users double tap to zoom in and slide their fingers to scroll and pan.

'We are proud to introduce the first touch-screen based BlackBerry smartphone together with Verizon Wireless and Vodafone,' said Mike Lazaridis, RIM's president and co-CEO.

'The BlackBerry Storm is a revolutionary touch-screen smartphone that meets both the communications and multimedia needs of customers and solves the longstanding problem associated with typing on traditional touch-screens.

'Consumers and business customers alike will appreciate this unique combination of a large and vibrant screen with a truly tactile touch interface,' he said.