BlackBerry Storm 9500 in India

Vodafone has launched the BlackBerry Storm 9500 in India at a price of Rs 27,990 on January 12, 2008. Vodafone has said that it plans to create 150 experience zones in India in Vodafone stores and Modern Trade outlets. The BlackBerry Storm 9500 has been available to customers since January 15, 2008.

The smartphone has a 3.2-inch, high resolution 480×360 color display, backlighting, and user selectable font size and type.

BlackBerry Storm 9500 photo

As can be seen in the BlackBerry Storm 9500 photo above, the BlackBerry Storm 9500 does not a trackball navigator like the BlackBerry Bold and other BlackBerry models. At the bottom of the phone, one can see talk, clear, and end buttons, and a Meny key.

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 comes with what RIM describes as a SurePress touch screen and an On Screen keyboard. The SurePress keyboard means that the display screen is pushed down, the way a button does when you press it.

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 automatically switches from portrait to landscape when the user changes the orientation of the phone from vertical to the horizontal.

The SureType keyboard is activated when the user is in landscape mode, and the QUERTY keyboard is activated when the user is in the portrait mode.

The phone has a 3.2 megapixel camera located on the reverse side of the phone. The camera of the BlackBerry Storm 9500 has auto flash and 2x digital zoom.

BlackBerry Storm 9500 rear photo

The BlackBerry Storm 9500’s other features include wireless email and a full HTML browser.

The email feature integrates with  an existing enterprise email account, and supports Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino, or Novell GroupWise. It also integrates with an existing personal email account and optional new device accounts.

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 allows the user to open Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, JPG and so on. Users can also run a spell check on the documents they send out.

The smartphone’s browser can be used in Internet Explorer or Firefox mode. Users can click on links using their fingers or use the cursor to click on a link.

BlackBerry Storm 9500 side photo

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 comes with a media player, which supports audio and video formats such as, MP3, WMA, WMA ProPlus, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB, and MPEG4, H.264, WMV, and H.263.

The smartphone also comes with a built-in GPS system.

The security features of the BlackBerry Storm 9500 include passoword protection, screen locking, and support for AES or Triple DES encryption.

The standby time of the battery is 15 days. The battery life of the GSM is 5.5 hours and that of the CDMA is 6 hours.

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 has a 1GB expandable memory, and a 128 MB flash memory.

The BlackBerry Storm 9500 India launch was delayed because of security issues. Most of the BlackBerry servers are located outside India. The Indian government insists that at least one server should be in India because of security reasons.

The smartphone segment in India is bucking the trend of diminishing sales in the handset market. Research firms say that smartphones that comprised 5 per cent of the handset market in 2007 are expected to account for over 13% market share in 2009.