Shortages of BlackBerry Storms Friday?

We were told all along there were more than enough Storms to go around on launch day, but a couple of our solid tipsters have hit us up to inform us there might be some issues. First off, we’re told that a last minute security flaw was found in the OS and they had to be re-flashed again. This will delay the shipments of the units to stores. Here is an example:

• A Verizon Corporate store that was promised 100 units on launch day is now getting 20 Thursday, 40 for Friday, 40 for Saturday, etc.
• The stock is spread out instead of being sent in large quantities.
• Our Verizon ninjas want to stress that stores will definitely have stock, just not nearly enough as was originally planned.
• We were also told to report that this was a RIM screw up (?) and not a problem on Verizon’s end. We have no idea what that means…
• All other retailers like indirects, Best Buy, etc., will take backseat to corporate-owned stores. We’ve even heard Best Buy’s launch might get pushed back in light of the new situation.

Remember those stock numbers are examples, ok? We’ve reached out to Verizon Wireless and are waiting to hear back. We’ll keep y’all updated.

Thanks, NotHTCKid and Anonymous!

Tags: BlackBerry, exclusive, launch, OS, RIM, storm, Verizon

Jonathan S. Geller