The distant sound of thunder in the smartphone world has coalesced into a veritable storm promising to rain on industry-leader Apple's parade. Formerly rumored to be dubbed the BlackBerry Thunder, the newest entry in the smartphone war against the iPhone 3G has just been officially announced, and it's true given name is the BlackBerry Storm 9730.

As a touchscreen smartphone, this is clearly the closest BlackBerry in look and feel to the iPhone, though the Storm's touchscreen interface introduces the concept "clickable" buttons on top of the multi-touch capabilities it shares with the iPhone.

Where the BlackBerry Storm's touchscreen further tops the iPhone's is in the improvements it offers in tactile feedback (a feature sorely deficient in the iPhone), indicating clearly whenever a user presses an onscreen button as well as which button was pressed.

Like the iPhone, the touchscreen technology inside the BlackBerry Storm includes an accelerometer, which changes the interface from landscape mode to portrait mode (and vice-versa) whenever the handset is turned. Also like the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm also features the minimal amount of actual buttons on its face, just 4 in all - Call, Menu, Back, and Power.
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While iPhone and iPhone 3G users enjoy access to AT&T Edge network, BlackBerry Storm users (in the US, at least) will be using the Verizon 3G EV-DO Rev. A (Evolution-Data Optimized, Revision A) network. This makes the device a particularly appealing choice to would-be iPhone customers currently with Verizon who just don't want to make the switch to AT&T.

One thing BlackBerry Storm users don't have to sacrifice, however, is their iTunes music library which they can sync to their BlackBerry just as easily as users of the iPhone. The BlackBerry also includes Roxio Media Manager to enable users to create their own personalized jukebox.

For the most part, the multimedia capabilities of both devices in general are pretty much comparable across the board. The greatest exception to this, it appears, is in the way of digital cameras, with the BlackBerry's 3.2 megapixels with video capabilities far surpassing the iPhone's 2 megapixel camera which takes still pictures only.

One area where all contenders for Apple's smartphone throne continue to fall short (including this latest entry from RIM) is in internal memory. Even with a MicroSD/SDHD memory card slot for expandable memory (which the iPhone does not possess), the BlackBerry Storm's 1 GB of internal memory still can't compete with the iPhone's 16 GB (or even its 8 GB model).

In terms of negligible differences, the BlackBerry Storm has a slightly smaller screen than the iPhone (3.25" to 3.5"), and is slightly heavier (5.5 oz to 4.7 oz), yet has slightly better pixel resolution (480 x 360 to 480 x 320). The size of the two devices is almost identical with the BlackBerry Storm being .1" shorter and .1" thicker than the iPhone.

Spokespeople from RIM claim that the intention of the BlackBerry 9730 (aka the BlackBerry Storm) is to offer BlackBerry customers a sleeker and sexier BlackBerry that's more like the iPhone in look and feel but which retains the BlackBerry's preeminent reputation for functionality and reliability.

We cannot, unfortunately, compare these two devices on price point, however, as the cost of the BlackBerry Storm (reportedly to be released in time for the 2008 holiday season) has yet to be announced.