Will BlackBerry’s touch-screen gamble pay off?

Research in Motion (RIM)’s first touch-screen device has received nearly as much hype as Apple’s iPhone, which it has promised to take down. The BlackBerry Storm, officially launching today on Verizon’s network, was a risk for RIM, which has traditionally stuck to QWERTY keyboards for its loyal enterprise market. Thus far, Storm reviews have been mixed, as RIM’s take on the touch screen proves to be an adjustment regardless of the end user.

“If you are a traditional BlackBerry user, you are going to encounter a learning curve using the clickable, touchable screen,” said Ross Rubin, wireless and consumer technology analyst for the NDP Group. “If you are a touch-screen user, you’ll also encounter a learning curve with the clickable screen. The behavior is different than a traditional touch screen when just because you touch something, it’s been selected. You actually have to push the screen down. Typical consumers will have to have patience.”

Tag-lined “press and be impressed,” the Storm is the first smartphone to feature a clickable screen that RIM calls SurePress. More than just haptics, which give the Samsung Instinct tactile feedback when touched, Storm users actually must press in the screen to make their selection. The device makes an audible clicking sound and depresses slightly to register the touch. The feel is much more equitable to a physical keyboard, but the Storm’s touch-screen keyboard can only be displayed in landscape mode.

Rubin has been testing the BlackBerry Storm for about a week now. He expects the device to compete head-to-head with the iPhone but admits it’s not for everyone. How the device is received will depend on what the consumer is looking for and if his or her past smartphone experience was with a BlackBerry or a feature phone.

“It’s certainly stays true to the traditional BlackBerry user interface, which will make things very familiar if you’ve previously used a BlackBerry,” Rubin said. “But if you’re expecting an iPhone-like touch-screen experience, it’s not as optimized of a touch screen as the iPhone or even the T-Mobile G1, which represents more fresh take or legacy-free approaches to developing a touch-screen user interface.”

The touch-screen, while quickly catching on in the marketplace, is a foreign concept to most traditional BlackBerry users, and most of the Storm’s customers will come from the traditional BlackBerry user camp, Rubin said, adding that RIM clearly believes this as well. The interface, while adapted for touch, is very much a product of RIM. It features RIM’s staple email, messaging, calendar and mobile Web functions, as well as additional consumer-oriented features like GPS, video and a camera with a flash and zoom, although it lacks a WiFi connection. Still, typing on the Storm has been a pain point for some users accustomed to RIM’s QWERTY keypads, including for Avi Greengart, mobile device analyst at Current Analysis.