We always thought touch-screen technology belongs to the future, but it’s time to face it: the future is now! Can you imagine having every device in your “inventory” with touch-screen capabilities? Perhaps not yet, but there’s always a start, and you can start by purchasing a touch-screen phone. While there are a lot of possibilities to choose from, not all customers are iPhone fans, or willing to wait for the Android to make its way to Europe and the rest of the world. But RIM comes to the rescue, and is ready to take the world by Storm!

BlackBerry was known as an all-QWERTY brand, targeting a specific segment of customers. However now, with Storm, Research in Motion crosses the bridge between the needs of business customers and the needs of regular consumers, by combining communications features, with global connectivity, personal productivity, and most of all, with world’s first “clickable touch-screen.”

While some may be a bit reluctant to giving up the traditional physical QWERTY keyboard they’ve been accustomed to, others are happy to see RIM taking a new approach to BlackBerry. As the competition on the smartphone market increases, the needs of wishes of consumers also increase, and touch-screen technology is undeniably “in” from now on.

Mike Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive officer at RIM said his company is “proud” to introduce a touch-screen BlackBerry, which he described as a “revolutionary touch-screen smartphone that meets both the communications and multimedia needs of customers, while at the same time solving “the longstanding problem associated with typing on traditional touch-screens.” He also added: “consumers and business customers alike will appreciate this unique combination of a large and vibrant screen with a truly tactile touch interface.”

While BlackBerry Storm leaves aside the physical keyboard, it replaces it with a touch-screen technology that leaves an impression similar to that of a real keyboard. The “clickable” touch-screen depresses slightly when it is pressed, confirming the user they’ve made a selection.

Furthermore, BlackBerry Storm continues to offer a full QWERTY touch-keyboard in landscape mode, and the built-in accelerometer allows the touch-screen to automatically switch between landscape mode and portrait mode when the user rotates the handset.

Storm offers 3G connectivity, and in the U.S., Verizon Wireless customers with BlackBerry Storm 9530 will benefit from 3G EV-DO Rev. A/CDMA technology, as well as (2100MHz) UMTS/HSPA and quad-band EDGE/GPRS/GSM for global use, Research in Motion said.

In addition to that, BlackBerry Storm also offers a full HTML browser which works both in portrait and landscape orientations. The touch-screen technology makes the most of the browsing experience with double tap to zoom and slide fingers to scroll and pan options.

On BlackBerry Storm, users will be able to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset with the help of preloaded DataViz Documents to Go. The smartphone comes with a 3.2-megapixel camera, it has built-in GPS support, and offers 1 GB of onboard memory storage and a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB of additional storage.

BlackBerry Storm is a smartphone that addresses both the usual business customers, and a new segment of consumers, and most importantly, it will become available this fall all over the United States for Verizon Customers, but also in Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand for Vodafone customers. RIM promised more details on availability and pricing in the coming weeks.