Is The BlackBerry Storm A Success Or Not?

Scattered reports across the Internet claim that the BlackBerry Storm is being returned in droves. Verizon Wireless insists that the Storm is "its best-selling device." Which is the truth?According to some folks deemed "credible", Verizon Wireless retail shops are seeing a return rate for the BlackBerry Storm anywhere between 35% and 50%, depending on the market. That's an outrageously high number.

If you read InformationWeek's initial review of the Storm, you know that it was highly buggy out of the box, and experienced no end of frustrating and user-infuriating glitches. A follow-up report posted in InformationWeek's Over-The-Air Blog gave the device slightly better marks, as it had been updated with newer firmware.

In response to the reports, Verizon said, "The Storm has the lowest return rate of any of our PDAs and at this point in its life cycle, it has the lowest return rate of any PDA we currently sell."

The device has only been widely available for several weeks at this point, so it is far too early to pass judgment. We're going to have to wait for RIM's next quarterly report to see how many Storm's have really been sold.

What about you? Did you buy a Storm? How has your experience been?