So much attention is being lavished on Apple’s iPhone 3GS that it’s easy to forget that the old iPhone 3G is quite a deal at its new $99 price. And even if you never buy an iPhone, you may benefit from Apple’s price cut, since it’s inexorably going to lead to lower prices for competitive smartphones. Such as RIM’s BlackBerry Storm–which AT&T is now selling for the familiar price of $99 with a two-year contract. Verizon originally sold the Storm for $250 (before a $50 rebate) and has recently offered it for $150, so the new sticker price represents a steep discount.

Unlike most BlackBerries, the Storm was poorly reviewed; most of the real people I run into who own one don’t hate it, but they don’t rhapsodize over it, either. With the Storm now assuming the same positioning as the iPhone 3G–last year’s technology for under a hundred bucks–the big question is whether the upcoming second-generation Storm will be a smartphone that BlackBerry fans can love.

 
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Read more: RIM BlackBerry, Smartphones, Verizon