Here it is folks (although in its US Verizon livery), the Blackberry Storm. Vodafone showed it off yesterday afternoon and put a release date on it for November.

RIM is making a point that its touch interface "enables easy and precise typing", following criticism of the difficulty of typing with the iPhone's on-screen keyboard. Unlike the iPhone however, the Storm has a "clickable" touchscreen, which apparently responds much more like a physical keyboard.

"The BlackBerry Storm is a revolutionary touchscreen smartphone that meets both the communications and multimedia needs of customers and solves the longstanding problem associated with typing on traditional touch-screens," said Mike Lazaridis, president and co-chief executive officer at RIM in a statement.

"Consumers and business customers alike will appreciate this unique combination of a large and vibrant screen with a truly tactile touch interface."

Essentially, the Storm's touch screen actually depresses ever so slightly when pressed. The user feels a gentle click when the screen is released, similar to a key on a keyboard or a button on a mouse. RIM is hoping that this clickable touchscreen will give the user a positive confirmation that they have made a selection, and should provide a more 'intuitive typing experience'.

The BlackBerry Storm offers the familiar navigation keys ('phone', 'menu' and 'escape') that are common to other BlackBerry smartphones, but adds support for multi-touches, taps, slides and other touch screen gestures, so users can highlight, scroll, pan and zoom for smooth navigation.

Like the iPhone, the BlackBerry Storm also features a built-in accelerometer, allowing its touchscreen to automatically switch between landscape mode and portrait mode as the user rotates the handset.

A SureType keyboard layout is available in portrait mode and a full QWERTY keyboard layout is available in landscape mode.