The BlackBerry Storm got slammed last week for failing to live up to the expectations of some in the media. It's only a matter of time before manufacturers realize it's not about the touch screen, it's about the user experience and positioning.

Almost every new smartphone on the market will soon have some element of touch-screeniness. The Nokia 5800 is the latest model on the market, but again, like the BlackBerry Storm, people expect another, better Apple iPhone.

Well, that's not going to happen. Why? Because it's a cultural thing.

Look at the Apple iPhone. It's clean, simple to use, has a wonderful Web browser and offers the real Internet experience and not some chopped-up version. It's slim and easy to handle.

Note the expressions on consumers' faces when they use the iPhone for surfing the Web or checking messages or downloading applications.

Pure joy.

That's the same emotion that Apple generates with its Mac laptops and personal computers.

No doubt, the iPhone has its negatives: a keyboard that's not as user-friendly for business executives and a battery that could have more juice. And then there are other things, including its aversion to Flash and issues with its new 3G model.

But overall, the iPhone has become the de facto standard for a smartphone.

The addition of more business-friendly software will make the iPhone a formidable competitor to Research In Motion's BlackBerry, especially if corporate IT departments buckle under employee pressure and support the iPhone.

Simply copying the iPhone and adding features that surveys showed were missing is not the way to launch a new smartphone. That is an iPhone upgrade and leave that to Apple to accomplish that.

MacBerry
What RIM needs to do with the BlackBerry is several things.

First, introduce some color. Having maybe four colors -- black, pink, white and silver -- is not enough. Let consumers express their individuality by buying phones with color and maybe even two-toned phones.

Two brands that come to mind with good color combinations are Ralph Lauren and its multi-hued Polo T-shirts and sweaters and the Mini Cooper small car. There's no reason why phone manufacturers can't learn from these brands.

Color not only generates emotion with the product, but also entices a younger audience into the BlackBerry fold. Why wait till the consumer enters the workforce to become a BlackBerry customer? Apple has it right: hook them young and hook them long.

Two, smarten up the advertising for the BlackBerry. It's not a phone, it's a lifeline. It's a not about a database of contacts, it's about taking your life with you, un-tethered to a desk and with the freedom to work and play anywhere.

Those messages aren't stressed much in BlackBerry advertising.

While wireless carriers and RIM do run ads pointing out the BlackBerry's several use cases and features, what's missing in that advertising across television, print, billboards or online is a singular quality: the ability to create desire, even irrational desire.

That's what Apple does. Walk past an Apple retail store and listen in on some of the conversations as shoppers press nose to the glass. Inevitably, they comment on how they don't want to step inside for fear they will end up buying something. And it's always a sigh.

Amazing pull, isn't it? That is what great branding generates: passion.

Contrast an Apple store with a carrier's store. What are the carriers selling? Phones with plans. Walk into an Apple store. What is it selling? A lifestyle.

So, the messaging has to change, not just for the BlackBerry, but every handset maker that wants a future strong enough to withstand Apple when smartphones become the rule and not the exception.

Finally, the BlackBerry needs to improve the user experience with two of the biggest killer applications in the last 15 years: the Internet and email.

Reading an email newsletter on the BlackBerry is like driving a car without the doors, paint and plush upholstery: a very stripped-down experience.

There's simply no excuse. RIM had the longest time to ensure that emails render well on the BlackBerry, maybe not as they would in a Microsoft Explorer, Safari or Firefox browser due to screen-size and bandwidth issues.

Still, look at the BlackBerry email experience today -- a tangle of code, a mangle of words.

Similarly, what has kept the BlackBerry from incorporating a regular Web browser such as the Apple has for its iPhone with Safari?

One of the biggest reasons for the iPhone's popularity is not just its touch screen but its ability to pull up and view the wired Web on the phone.

Instead, we have handset after handset from brands such as RIM, Nokia, LG, Samsung, Helio and Motorola peddling a watered-down browser. A watered-down browser is a watered-down experience.

Handset makers regularly struggle with the need to offer more QWERTY-like features on their devices while increasing screen size for Web, email, text, video and other applications.

And that's why it's imperative for handset veterans to not just develop full-screen smartphones that simply deliver features lacking in the iPhone, but launch products that accentuate their own strengths.

What is the BlackBerry's core strength? That it is the best device for business applications such as corporate email, spreadsheets and documents.

Play that up in the advertising, but add elements that inspire. How about a campaign that shows how the BlackBerry helped clinch a deal due to its email? Or that how the BlackBerry saved millions because the user got the spreadsheet in time?

On the consumer side, speak with youngsters in the language they like: a BlackBerry whose messaging features strengthen friendships or one that helps with their homework.

Target the parents to enroll the entire family into the BlackBerry family plan. Work out the use-case scenarios so that you win the loyalty of the family and make them the BlackBerries.

That little something
These nostrums are easy to offer, yes. But they are simply the hallmarks of successful brands.

Times are tough. Consumers are cutting back on non-essential expenses. Smartphones might suffer a drop in sales if the brand's not perceived to be smart or hip or essential to a connected lifestyle.

The whole mobile ecosystem depends on the growth and uptake of smartphones. Without such devices there is no Web, no music, no video, no email, no spreadsheets, no news delivery, no games -- just voice and text.

It behooves device makers to take a page out of brands whose positioning of products elicits positive emotion.

Apple charms with its products' clean lines and user-friendly interface, further accentuating those features in minimalist, white-clad online and retail stores.

Target -- or shall we say Tarjey? -- entices with its clean, red-and-white aisles wide enough to avoid butt brush and with shelves not too high to reach for shoppers.

Ralph Lauren brings back yearnings of a gentler, WASPier past, with its attire and furnishings for oak-paneled boardrooms, Palm Beach tennis courts, Alpine ski lodges and Gold Coast sailboats.

Vanity Fair celebrates the rich and famous, clapping and mocking in turns amid perfume-stripped pages that promise the reader a journey full of voyeuristic thrill, excitement and intrigue.

For sale here are computers and mobile phones, groceries, apparel and magazines. But what people buy is communication, good health, the possibility of dreams and a seat in noble drawing rooms. A smartphone can offer access to all of that. But where's the romance in the message and flair in the product?