The new Blackberry Storm 2 9550 (don’t get confused with the 9520 for Vodaphone…) has been a highly anticipated phone even just after the 1st gen Storm came out. Because the Blackberry phones have always had physical keyboards and none of them were touch up until the Storm was released, it was expected that there would be some issues with the new technology. For most people, the phone was a lag bucket (yes I said lag bucket.) Now there have been a couple of firmware updates that have been said to make the Storm bearable until it’s upgrade time for the Storm 2. With the addition of WiFi to the Storm 2, I would imagine there are going to be more people paying the full price to get the new phone.

Most of the annoying issues that consumers were not enjoying about there phone were, but not limited to the SurePress technology for the touch screen (where you touch the screen to select and then push down on the screen to activate something), lack of WiFi, battery life, and just all around prettiness. Even the battery life has improved greatly, 5+ hours of talk time and 10+ days of standby. I could certainly deal with that.

The Storm is currently still running on the 4.7 software for Blackberry but once the Storm 2 comes out, 5.0 should be out and accordingly, when this is applied to the Storm it should fix most problems with software issues on the phone. Just long enough to wait for upgrade time I suppose…

Will this new venture for Blackberry be the iPhone killer? Will the masses stampede all Verizon stores, waiting for days in line just to get there hands on a new crackberry? Most likely not, I still stand by the fact that if iPhone moves to Verizon, I will have one. I am pretty sure that there are many other people out there that have the same sentiments as myself. Until then, I am still oogling the new Blackberry Storm 2.

A rumor that has been floating around for probably more than a year, but has started to gain more hype, is the possibility that Apple may come out with a new iPhone with Verizon.

Stop right there.  If any of you felt your heart race after hearing of the rumor or just reading this now for the first time, welcome friends!  In an age where we want everything at the touch of a finger, the iPhone is a very handy gadget.  Most smartphones are for that matter.  (Of course the iPhone apps are one of the reasons that Apple had no real competitor other than Blackberry.)

The iPhone, even in some of our generation’s dimmest times, was still increasing sales.  With the App Store, the iPhone can be transformed into anything you want it to be really.  Being someone who is fairly attached to her laptop, I will sometimes drag it out just to check on some news or tweet or play a game.  This isn’t a pain at all, but thinking about just doing it on the iPhone, I begrudge other people’s iPhone joy.  It seems to be the perfect mini-laptop when taking a laptop out just isn’t as practical as it used to be.  In a world where netbooks are selling like mad and laptops are selling much more than desktops, the iPhone fits in well.

If in fact Verizon and Apple do come to an accord for an iPhone, this should make for a take over in the smartphone industry.  One of the key reasons that most people do not have an iPhone is AT&T.  I live in an area where the best service is Verizon and AT&T is subpar, well most other carriers are too.  Because of this, I refuse to move over to AT&T just for an iPhone, though I constantly wish I could deal with the service and just get the iPhone.

From past endeavors, Apple will rarely annouce anything quite as big as a Verizon iPhone in a huge time advance.  Because of this, I doubt that we will hear much about a contract between Verizon and Apple at WWDC which is days away kicking off on June 8th.  If anything, I would expect the iPhone to be on Verizon’s bill in 2010, most likely Fall.  The reason for this is because they did annouce that they had no intentions of changing their partnership with AT&T.

It is no secret that if Apple were to open to other carriers, they would more than double their iPhone sales at present.  Verizon is a very stable network with great reception nearly everywhere I have been with a Verizon phone, even Maine and the boondocks of Pennsylvania and New York.  However, there is a downside for Apple to go with Verizon according to research analysts Craig Moffett and Toni Sacconaghi of Bernstein Research.  Verizon would certainly highten iPhone sales but AT&T would probably lower the subsidy per phone from $450 to $350 or even $250 and that would make us Verizon iPhone cheerleaders pay more for the iPhone with Verizon, unless they lowered the margins on each phone.

Either way, it makes me excited just thinking about using an iPhone with perfect reception at my house where AT&T has yet to expand service near.  Until then, I will be patiently awaiting the grand news.