RIM’s long-awaited touchscreen iPhone rival, the Blackberry Storm, is launching later this autumn with Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) in the US and Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. The Storm is being aimed at both consumers and business users, and tries to improve on the iPhone with what RIM (NSDQ: RIMM) claims to be the world’s first clickable touchscreen.  The 3G phone comes pre-loaded with software for e-mail and managing documents, and has a media player, a 3.2 megapixel camera and built-in GPS support, among other features. Pricing for the phone hasn’t been determined yet, but as Reuters notes, launching new next-generation devices has squeezed RIM’s margins, thanks to higher costs. But the device maker, like its rivals, needs to keep luring in new consumers and so are limited into how much it can pass those costs onto buyers. 

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In other RIM news, the company also announced today the the availability of new developer tools for creating and testing mobile applications for the Storm, the BlackBerry Bold and the BlackBerry Pearl (release).