BlackBerry Storm Now Available for Half Price

The BlackBerry Storm -- the first BlackBerry with a touchscreen -- launched late last year at $200, but it is available now for half that.

Amazon.com is currently offering this smartphone for $100. Getting this price requires signing up for two years of service with Verizon Wireless,  but no mail-rebate is required.

To learn more, or to purchase the BlackBerry Storm 9530, visit the Amazon.com website.

An Overview of the BlackBerry Storm

This smartphone has a tablet shape with a 3.25-inch, 360-by-480-pixel display, with both landscape and portrait support. It doesn't have a built-in keyboard, so all text is entered on the display.

The screen supports multi-touches, taps, slides and other gestures, allowing users to highlight, scroll, pan, and zoom. A built-in accelerometer allows users to switch between modes by rotating the device.

As always, RIM is emphasizing the email capabilities of this BlackBerry, it comes with DataViz Documents to Go, which lets users edit Office files directly on the handset. But it isn't all business; RIM is also pushing the Storm's use as a music and video player.

Verizon's version of this smartphone -- the 9530 -- has support for this carrier's EV-DO network, but doesn't stop there; to allow users to roam around the world, it also has a quad-band GSM and 2100 MHz HSDPA.

The Storm has 1 GB of internal storage and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot. It comes with an 8 GB card.

In addition, it includes Bluetooth 2.0 (but not Wi-Fi), a GPS receiver, and a 3.2 MPx camera with flash.

RIM says its 1400 mAh battery will provide approximately six hours of talk time on 3G networks or 15 days of standby time.