Thousands pre-order Blackberry Storm in Britain

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) - The first touch-screen BlackBerry smartphone will go on sale in Britain on Nov. 14, and thousands of customers have already pre-ordered the device, exclusive UK sales partner Vodafone (VOD.L) said on Thursday.

The BlackBerry Storm, Research in Motion's (RIM.TO)(RIMM.O) answer to Apple's (AAPL.O) iPhone, will also be available in some other European markets in time for the Christmas shopping season at the end of December, Vodafone said.

The Storm has been 18 months in development by RIM and Vodafone -- the first time RIM has developed a device together with an operator, and an important step in its strategy to extend its appeal beyond business users to consumers.

A RIM spokesman declined to say how many devices the company expected to sell but said he expected it to be "extremely popular" with both business and general customers.

He added that there were no current plans to jointly develop phones with other operators, nor were there plans to dilute exclusive sales deals with Vodafone in Europe, India, Australia and New Zealand and Verizon (VZ.N) in the United States.

The popularity of the iPhone, first launched in mid-2007, has inspired many other handset makers including Taiwan's HTC (2498.TW) and South Korea's LG Electronics (066570.KS) and Samsung (005930.KS) to develop their own touch-screen phones.

Nokia (NOK1V.HE), the world's biggest cellphone maker, launched its first touch-screen phone in October. It will first be sold in Asia, the Middle East, Russia and Spain and will miss the Christmas season in most developed markets.

The BlackBerry Storm's touch screen indents slightly when it is pressed, and keys on the on-screen keyboard light up when hovered over, reducing the potential for mis-typing that many users experience with touch-screen keyboards.

The phone comes pre-loaded with consumer-friendly applications such as Google (GOOG.O) mail and maps, Yahoo's (YHOO.O) Flickr photo-sharing service and a specially adapted version of social network Facebook.

Vodafone will give the Storm away for free in Britain, with two-year contracts starting at 35 pounds ($56) per month, and charge up to 500 pounds if the device is sold with shorter or cheaper contracts.

No launch dates or pricing have yet been announced for other countries outside Britain. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan)