Although not officially announced by RIM, BlackBerry Storm 9500 is hardly a well-kept secret. Tons of details and images have appeared over the past month, all of them revolving around the very first touchscreen smartphone built by the Canadians from Research in Motion.

The latest “big leak” comes via Vodafone Italy, which officially presented the BlackBerry Storm to a select audience. And if you're wondering why Vodafone and not another carrier, the answer is that Vodafone and Verizon (of which we already know will release the Storm) are the only ones to offer the new smartphone this year. Makes sense, since the giant Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon, and they have probably already sealed an exclusivity deal with RIM regarding the Storm.

BlackBerry Storm should bring about anything an experienced user would require from a smartphone: advanced voice and data capabilities, a full QWERTY keyboard (although on-screen), internal GPS, full HTML browser, push e-mail, Mobile streaming, Music player, a 3.2 Megapixel camera and expandable memory. Also, one of the device's highlights is its 3.3-inche TFT touchscreen display with 360 x 480 pixels, which should enable users to easily interact with all of its functions.

Apparently, the Storm measures around 112 x 62 x 14 millimeters – hence it's in line with the iPhone 3G, HTC Touch HD and the other candidates to the “Touchscreen Phone of the Year” title.

No exact release date for BlackBerry Storm has been confirmed yet. However, all clues are pointing towards the fact that, at the beginning of November, both the V carriers will finally start selling the touchscreen smartphone, to the joy of US and European users who are not that fond of Apple's iPhone or the touchscreen handsets built by HTC, Samsung and LG.

The price of BlackBerry Storm is another mystery. Nevertheless, since RIM's handsets were never affordable and given that this one is a unique smartphone, we dare venture a guess that you’ll probably have to pay quite a lot to become the owner of a Storm.

Here is the Vodafone video presentation: