Verizon Wireless, Vodafone Group and Research In Motion have announced that the BlackBerry Storm 9530 will be released later this fall to compete with Apple's iPhone.

The Storm handset will be available exclusively to Verizon Wireless customers in the U.S. and Vodafone customers in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand. The companies are touting it as the world's first clickable touch-screen smartphone.

Designed to satisfy the needs of both consumers and business customers, the BlackBerry Storm smartphone combines the communications and personal productivity features of the BlackBerry platform with touch-screen technology.

BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion claims that the Storm enhances the touch interface and enables easy and precise typing.

The touch-screen interface first saw commercial release with competitor Apple's iPhone.

The clickable touch-screen responds much like a physical keyboard and also supports single-touch, multi-touch and gestures for intuitive and efficient application navigation.

In the U.S., the BlackBerry Storm will be on Verizon Wireless' 3G Evolution-Data Optimized Revision A network for rich Internet browsing and multimedia applications.

In Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand, Vodafone will support customers with its 3G mobile broadband networks.

The Storm's multimedia features and services include browsing, music and video, turn-by-turn satellite navigation, messaging and social networking.

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone comes with a touch-screen that depresses slightly when the screen is pressed.

The user distinctly feels the screen being pressed and released with a gentle click, similar to the feeling of a key on a physical keyboard or a button on a mouse.

The clickable touch-screen gives the user positive confirmation that they have made a selection and the partners claim that the result is an enhanced touch interface and a highly intuitive typing experience.

In addition to the familiar navigation keys -- "phone," "menu" and "escape" -- that are common to other BlackBerry smartphones, the new BlackBerry Storm adds support for multi-touches, taps, slides and other touch-screen gestures, letting customers highlight, scroll, pan and zoom for smooth navigation.

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone also features a built-in accelerometer, allowing its touch-screen to automatically switch between landscape mode and portrait mode as the user rotates the handset.

RIM's SureType keyboard layout is available in portrait mode and a full QWERTY keyboard layout is available in landscape mode.

Consumers can control other features, such as cut and paste, via the touch interface.

The BlackBerry Storm is a 3G mobile phone with global connectivity.

Customers will get a full HTML browser that works in either portrait or landscape orientation.

The touch-screen interface that lets users navigate Web sites by double tapping to zoom in and sliding their fingers to scroll and pan.

Icons along the bottom of the display let consumers access Web sites, switching between "Page View" and "Column View" as well as the ability to toggle between "Pan" mode and "Cursor" mode.

The enhanced browser supports file downloading, streaming audio and video, or RTSP, and with its built-in RSS support, new content from supported Web sites can be automatically pushed to the user.

The phone supports personal and corporate email, SMS, MMS and instant messaging on the most prevalent consumer and enterprise platforms, as well as easy access to popular social networking sites.

The BlackBerry Storm smartphone also includes BlackBerry Internet Service, BlackBerry Unite!, BlackBerry Professional Software and BlackBerry Enterprise Server support.

The Storm has preloaded DataViz Documents to Go, letting users edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset.

The 3.2 megapixel camera with variable zoom, auto focus and a powerful flash provides continuous lighting when recording video.

The built-in GPS supports location-based applications and services, as well as geo-tagging of photos.

The Storm has 1 GB of onboard memory storage and a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that supports up to 16 GB of additional storage.

The media player can play movies smoothly in full-screen mode, display pictures and slideshows quickly and manage an entire music collection.

Playlists can be created directly on the handset and there's an equalizer with 11 preset filters -- including "Lounge," "Jazz" and "Hip Hop" -- for customized audio ranges when using wired headphones or external speakers.

Other features include a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, support for Bluetooth stereo audio profile (A2DP/AVRCP) and dedicated volume controls.

The Storm's ambient light sensor automatically adjusts backlighting for ideal screen viewing and an accelerometer that allows customers to view applications in either portrait or landscape mode by simply rotating the handset.

The removable and rechargeable 1400 mAhr battery provides approximately six hours of talk time on 3G networks and 15 days of standby time.

Additional details related to availability and pricing will be announced in the coming weeks.