RIM releases BlackBerry Storm emulator

Just days after T-mobile made a G1 emulator available to the online world, BlackBerry manufacturer RIM has posted a Storm simulator on its website.

However, it’s far from the consumer-friendly affair put together by T-Mobile. Indeed, to even find the thing, you’d have to hunt hard on developers’ area of the BlackBerry website; not to mention jumping through a few registration hoops that begin to make you wonder why you’re bothering.

To save you the search effort, click this link and be sure to select the v.4.7.0 download from the drop-down list. Not that you’re quite done yet, mind – more after the cut.

Note also that, if you want the browser to function correctly in this Storm emulator, you’ll need also to download the BlackBerry Email and MDS Services Simulator Package (another download option on the afore-linked drop-down list).

Be warned, too, that RIM’s download server appears to be running on a 56K modem. It took us the best part of 20 minutes to download the 65MB v4.7.0 file this morning; plus another 15 minutes or so to grab the Email and MDS Services file (which itself presents further registration hoops).

After you’ve negotiated all that, you’ll be able to play with a Storm, virtually-speaking. Worth it? Well, not really. But you know you’re curious. So off you go.

[via RIM]