BlackBerry Storm sells 500k units in a month

The BlackBerry Storm is the poster handset for Research In Motion's push into consumer markets, so how is it selling?

Pretty well, according to a seemingly well-sourced piece in the Wall Street Journal, which suggests the Storm sold 500,000 units in its first month on sale.

That doesn't sound bad to us, although the tone of the WSJ article implies this is a bit disappointing given the £100 million marketing campaign around the Storm's launch.

The 500k figure comes from "people familiar with the matter", rather than RIM itself. However, co-CEO Jim Balsillie tells the paper that RIM is making 250,000 devices a week to meet demand.

However, his comments on the Storm's reliability (or lack of it - the device has been heavily criticised for its bugs) aren't so gratifying. He said such problems are part of the "new reality" in making complex smartphones.

Still, with the Storm selling strongly, it's no surprise more mobile games firms are targeting BlackBerry this year. The launch of RIM's application store for the platform in March will also help.