BASKING RIDGE, USA: Verizon Wireless announced that the latest BlackBerry Storm would be available to its customers from November 21.

The highly-anticipated BlackBerry Storm smartphone's powerful communications features, global connectivity and personal productivity advantages are designed to satisfy the highly sensitive needs of enterprise customers.

Business customers had relied on the BlackBerry platform for years for its ease of use and advanced security features that help protect their intellectual property. The BlackBerry Storm smartphone incorporates all of the trusted security features while giving customers the latest technology, including the world's first "clickable" touch screen for intuitive and efficient navigation.

Eugene Signorini, vice president, Yankee Group's Enterprise Research group, said: "The growing mobile workforce has changed how IT managers and CIOs protect their intellectual property, no matter where their employees are located. The BlackBerry platform offers inherent security features they expect, packaged with a proven wireless voice and data network, and the gold standard for enterprise e-mail."

Mark Bartolomeo, vice president, enterprise data sales, Verizon Wireless, said: "IT departments and CIOs who want to meet the needs of today's growing mobile workforce will appreciate the fact that the BlackBerry security protocols are all available with the BlackBerry Storm. The comfort level with the familiar BlackBerry platform makes it easy for a CIO to decide the BlackBerry Storm fits the needs of employees and the company, delivering a strong return on investment."

With the BlackBerry Storm smartphone, business customers can connect globally in more than 200 countries for voice and more than 150 countries for data worldwide. In the US, Verizon Wireless customers will benefit from the nation's most reliable wireless voice network and the pervasiveness of Verizon Wireless' reliable high-speed 3G Evolution-Data Optimized (EV-DO) Revision A (Rev. A) network.

Incorporating the world's first "clickable" touch screen, the BlackBerry Storm lets business customers conduct research on the Internet, access their intranet and edit Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint documents directly on their BlackBerry Storm while on-the-go.

The BlackBerry Storm will be available for $199.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.

Source: Web Wire