The BlackBerry Storm generated quite a fuss when it first arrived in Verizon Wireless stores but unfortunately hit some snags as customers have complained about its touch screen and performance.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Storm carrier Verizon Wireless and BlackBerry manufacturer RIM "rushed the device to market despite glitches in the stability of the phone's operating system," according to unnamed "people close to the launch." Verizon reportedly sold "roughly" 500,000 Storms in its first month of sales after its November 21 launch.

The problem according to many users is that the Storm is besieged with bugs that hamper performance and results in overall sluggish performance. RIM, the maker of the Blackberry handsets, didn’t apologize for the problems with the handset. Rather RIM co-chief Jim Balsillie said that scrambles to launch products on time and software glitches are part of the "new reality" of making complex phones in large volumes.

To its credit, Verizon released a software update in December that smoothed out some of the Storm's kinks. However, while the firmware fix was certainly welcome, the whole "release it now, patch it later" thing is an insidious habit.

By comparison, the Apple iPhone 3G moved 2.4 million units in its first quarter on the market. The iPhone now holds about 16.6 percent of the global smartphone market. Balsillie says that RIM considers the Storm an overwhelming success and is making 250,000 devices per week to keep up with demand. Analysts will look to Verizon's fourth-quarter earnings announcement on Tuesday for insight on the Storm's success. And they will be assessing whether the phone can in fact live up to the promise of being an iPhone killer.