During a press conference held yesterday, Research in Motion officially presented it new BlackBerry, the first ever to offer a touchscreen, which will be available in the United States exclusively through Verizon Wireless later this year.

Both companies decided to wait a little longer before releasing the details about the scheduled launch date and the pricing details. The distribution process also involves a deal with Vodafone for the European market and the company’s officials stated that the phone is compatible with networks in 208 countries, meaning that RIM has big plans for its new product.

The new device, called the Storm, offers 3G access, GPS, Bluetooth, a 3.2 megapixels camera with flash, autofocus and also a recording video option. It measures 4.4 by 2.4 by 0.55 inches and weighs close to 5.5 ounces, so far showing many of the features found on the iPhone or on T-Mobile’s G1. The device offers users a full HTML browser set to work in both portrait and landscape orientation. The Browser was designed to support file downloads, streaming audio and video and built-in RSS support. It also offers access to popular social networking Web sites such as Facebook and MySpace.

The Storm provides 1 Giga Byte of memory storage and a micro SD/SDHD memory card slot that can hold up to 16 GB of additional storage. The built-in media player shows displays movies, tunes and pictures, also allowing slideshows and making playlists. The Storm, just as expected, also offers BlackBerry's mobile email and messaging feature, with full support for both personal and corporate email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging from most of the consumer and enterprise platforms. Its 1,400-mAh battery will ensure more than 6 hours of talk time.

The multi-touch 360-pixel, 3.25-inch glass display is considered the phone’s main attraction. RIM’s new "ClickThrough" feature was presented as a characteristic designed to let users "distinctly feel the screen being pressed and released with a gentle click" for a "highly intuitive experience."

In the U.S. the new BlackBerry Storm 9530 will be available through Verizon Wireless with 3G EV-DO Rev. A/CDMA technology and (2100 MHz) UMTS/HSPA and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM for global use.

Even though the device delivers a complete set of features, the most significant factor will be its price. The company has to come out with an offer not only affordable but actually attractive to a large segment of the market in order to make sure that it will take the customers eyes off the many other devices available. The two-year data plans prepared by its carrier-partners could make all the difference if appropriately planned but we’ll just to have to wait a few more weeks before giving a verdict.

Research In Motion is a Canadian wireless device company, which got its major break with 2002’s release of the BlackBerry phones. The devices were received on the market with great enthusiasm as they supported internet faxing, web browsing and text messaging. According to the company’s estimations, the number of worldwide BlackBerry owners approaches 14 million.