BlackBerry Storm To Cost $219 With ContractBlackBerry Storm To Cost $219 With Contract

Some eagle-eyed surfers spotted a Verizon Wireless staging site that spilled some details of the BlackBerry Storm. Among them was the price. The Storm will set you back $219 if you sign a two-year contract.Well, the Storm will officially cost more than the (8GB) 3G iPhone by $20. That's about where analysts had pegged the retail price, though many believed it would match the iPhone's $199 price tag. The $219 price point also is right in the range that many of today's smartphones cost with contracts. The number of smartphones that cost between $200 and $300 is vast and competitive.

The one really interesting thing about the $219 price point is that it undercuts the BlackBerry Bold, RIM's other new smartphone, by a whopping $80, and offers the novelty of the touch screen.

Verizon's price is $219 more than its partner, Vodafone, is charging for the Storm, which is giving the much-anticipated smartphone away for free. Will buyers bite? You're darn tootin'. The $219 price point is a lot less than the full retail price of the phone, which is $520. If you want to buy the Storm with a one-year contract, it will cost $290, which is less than the 16-GB 3G iPhone costs with a two-year contract. The staging site doesn't say anything about rebates, so there is still a chance that Verizon could offer the Storm at a price point lower than $219 with contract and rebates combined.

At this point, we have most of the pieces of the puzzle. We know the cost of the device. We know the cost of the global data plans. What we don't know is when the darned thing will be available for sale. Over the weekend, I asked a sales rep at my local Verizon Wireless retail shop if he knew the release date of the Storm. He told me Nov. 23. How solid that date is, no one knows.

Either way, knowing the pricing will allow you to budget accordingly.