Research in Motions (RIM) most sophisticated and sleek smartphone yet, the BlackBerry Storm which is causing Storm Mania everywhere with its launch in the UK tomorrow (November 14) and US anytime now, is now causing a huge stir in New Zealand.

According to a Vodafone insider the BlackBerry Storm will be available in New Zealand on December 1, just in time for the Christmas period, depending on your plan a rough guide price will be $999.

So with RIM’s first ever touch screen touching down all over the place, we really are ready for this BlackBerry Storm to blow in and blow the iPhone off of its number one position. It was reported that in US quarterly sales the BlackBerry sales which we guess includes the BlackBerry Bold, Pearl and Curve hit the 6.8 million sale figure whereas Apple’s iPhone hit 6.9 million handset sales.

Well considering the best ever BlackBerry hasn’t even launched (well hours away) and there has been no talk of an immediate iPhone 3G replacement we think it’s pretty clear that BlackBerry will regain its original top spot in the smartphone market.

Verizon Wireless is the US carrier and the first to release the BlackBerry Storm, offering a two year contract at $US250 or $US200 with a rebate, plus with Verizon”s partner in the deal Vodafone who owns 45 percent of Verizon we can safely say they will be making a huge profit out of the storm. Question is will it beat the profits O2 made from the iPhone?

Source: nrb