BlackBerry's Storm Passes

Rafael Cohen writes: It's the second business day of the BlackBerry Storm era, and while analysts say over 100,000 people got to buy one and show it off over the weekend, it's not clear when eager consumers will be able to join their ranks.

Calls to three Manhattan Verizon stores said no new units would be available until the second week in December.

Those looking to buy the new $199 smart phone directly from the Verizon website won't be much luckier. According to the site, orders placed today won't be shipped until December 15th due to "limited availability."

The high demand and publicity from the Storm's debut moved BlackBerry maker Research in Motion's share price just a tad, though, up 1 percent to $45.36, and the company may run into some trouble for underestimating demand around "Black Friday."

Also, an inability to adequately fill demand may keep RIM from fully benefiting from the Storm's sales in its Q3 earnings.

On Friday, Portfolio.com spoke with various eager Storm shoppers, at least one of whom was angered at Verizon's lack of foresight saying, "I really think Verizon should have better measured the number of phones they would need."

Reviews of the phone have been mixed. Some have called the new touch screen keyboard difficult to use and there have been some activation glitches. But many have praised its design and are viewing the phone as a competitor for the iPhone's recent smart phone dominance.