New BlackBerry users likely to return BlackBerry Storm while loyal fans stick it out

Following up on Simon’s speculation that Verizon customers were returning BlackBerry 9350 Storm handset en masse, I decided to perform a casual survey of BlackBerry Storm buyers. In and around Los Angeles, I approached 10 people that had either purchased their BlackBerry Storm as an upgrade from a previous BlackBerry smartphone and 21 people that had purchased the handset as their first BlackBerry device. The results are telling. BlackBerry loyalists are more likely to see past the BlackBerry Storm’s interface baubles, resulting in lower BlackBerry Storm return rates. On the other hand, customers new to the BlackBerry platform are much more likely to become fed up with the Storm, leading to significantly higher return rates.

Of the 10 BlackBerry loyals surveyed, a solid 70% were at least satisfied with their purchase. The survey included 4 people that they were either “Somewhat Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” with the BlackBerry Storm, 3 people that they were “Satisfied” with the Storm, and 3 users that they were either “Somewhat Dissatisfied” or “Very Dissatisfied” with their BlackBerry 9350 Storm purchase.”

Three of the loyal BlackBerry customers indicated that they had “Already Returned” or “Planned to Return” their BlackBerry 9350 Storm to Verizon Wireless – a 30% return rate.

Of the 21 new BlackBerry customers surveyed a good 57% were at least “Satisfied” with their smartphone. The survey showed that 7 people were either “Somewhat Satisfied” or “Very Satisfied” with the BlackBerry Storm, 5 people were apparently “Satisfied with the touchscreen BlackBerry, and an astounding 9 people were miffed enough with their Storm to check either the “Somewhat Dissatisfied” or “Very Dissatisfied” boxes.

Interestingly, 12 people indicated that they had “Already Returned” or “Planned to Return” their touchscreen BlackBerry and its click-able display – a 57% return rate. The finding suggests an overlap – that new BlackBerry users are more likely to return the BlackBerry Storm, even when “Satisfied” with the device. By extension, newcomers to the BlackBerry platform may have had higher expectations from the BlackBerry Storm, and were disappointed with the Storm despite being “Satisfied” with the handset.

The findings echo Simon’s sentiment that Verizon may be downplaying the return rate for the BlackBerry Storm.

So, how many of you out there are returning your BlackBerry Storm. Likewise, how many of you are loving the Storm?

Disclaimer:
The survey was conducted from December 18 to December 21. This survey is not intended as an official survey and does not necessarily indicate actual BlackBerry Storm return rates.

About The Author

Will Park

Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see...

Joe

Not valid sample size. I don’t use a blackberry. But by reading this article it is obvious you can’t read much into this article.
Nancy Goldstein

I am a new BB user, migrating over from iPAQ (Pocket PC OS) and Samsung u740 w/email app from VZW. I am pretty technically oriented, and I have to admit that after one day with the Storm I was frustrated enough to return it. The learning curve is pretty steep for a newbie, and the “Tips” booklet that comes with the device is almost useless (the manual on disk is much better). But I hung in there and by the second day, things were better. I do love the nice big, bright display. I’m getting used to the “combo-letter” qwerty keyboard in portrait view, but prefer the single letter keyboard in landscape view. I hope my typing will get faster and more accurate – as it was on my Samsung. I am annoyed that the only way I can open and view pdf’s is to email them to myself. This seems unnecessary – surely there should be a Reader for BB, but I can’t find one if there is (I use Outlook in a workgroup, and am not on an Enterprise server). And please, for God’s sake, I need left/right/up/down curser navigation arrows!! It’s nearly impossible to land the curser exactly where you need it in a line of text.
Kevin

There are three of us in my family that are smart phone users, we all change at the same time and migrated from the Palm Treo 700WX. And the BB Storm is a 150% improvement over the Palm phones. I was forever on tech support with various EXE errors and lock-ups on the palm. The Storm does have a learning curve for sure, but is well worth the time to learn it. It has great internet browser and I can view YouTube directly, that is nice. I enjoy the music/video player, but could not upload all the movies that I can upload to my iPod. It just did not like some of them. All in All the Storm is the best phone I have had so far.

Oh almost forgot the real sweet spots are the GPS navigation that is on the phone for free. and the ability to run “TheWeatherNetwork.com” from one button. Sweet!

I absolutely agree, R.I.M is insane for not providing curser movement arrows on all screens. When in the web browser you can choose curser and then move it around like a mouse. but need that in all text editing screens. that is lacking. I hope that they come up with an upgrade to fix that.