Storm in a phone

London, Nov. 14: The battle to be the number one mobile phone this Christmas steps up a gear, as the first-ever touchscreen BlackBerry goes head-to-head with Apple’s iPhone 3G.

The BlackBerry Storm combines a phone and high- speed web browser with mobile email on the go. It’s the first BlackBerry to use a touchscreen interface instead of the more familiar Qwerty keyboard.

The entire screen is mounted on a mechanism known as a “popple dome”, which makes it feel like it’s sitting on a spring. Users touch the screen once to highlight a program or application, such as their emails, and then click the whole screen to enter that application.

Typing on the virtual keyboard is similar to typing on a real keyboard, because users have to press down on the screen just as they would if they were typing on physical buttons.

The device has a high-resolution 3.25in screen and a three-megapixel camera, and up to 16GB of storage, enough for more than 3,000 songs.

The touchscreen Storm is aimed as much at those using it for their social life as at business users. “It can compete with the iPhone,” said Geoff Blaber, an analyst with CCS Insight.