"It's not that the BlackBerry Storm is a bad phone," said , research director at ChangeWave Research. "It's just that the initial launch has glitches which have resulted in a mediocre satisfaction rating, while consumers are already trained to expect the very highest standards from their BlackBerries."

In its most recent consumer smart-phone survey, ChangeWave found that the Storm's satisfaction rating was more akin to a mid-tier handset and significantly below that of people who own Apple's iPhone. Just 33% of new Storm owners, for example, said they were "very satisfied" with the touch screen smart phone, compared to 77% of iPhone owners who answered with that phrase in a July 2008 survey ChangeWave conducted less than a month after Apple launched the iPhone 3G.

Likewise, 14% of Storm owners said they were "unsatisfied" with their new , compared with 5% of iPhone buyers who gave that response in July.

But the Storm is not all RIM has to offer, Carton said, as he argued that the Waterloo, Ontario, company is in a strong position leading into 2009.

"For the first time in a year, RIM's next 90 days are looking very, very strong," said Carton, "even in relation to Apple. Overall, BlackBerry represents the top of the line. And although Storm started off looking like a mid-tier smart phone in terms of its initial consumer reaction, that's not the end of the story."