Research in Motion launched its new Blackberry Bold smartphone in Australia last week. And hours later in Hong Kong.
RIM’s COO and former CFO Dennis Kavelman came from Canada to make the presentation but did not announce a start date or pricing for the new model.
The Blackberry Bold is an elegant machine which belongs to a world where work is serious and you stay connected with push email no matter what else you are doing. It is not, as it stands, a challenge to iPhone. Nor does the reverse apply.
Since the company started, 16 million Blackberries had been sold worldwide. Which, in mobile terms, is not a lot. But this is no ordinary mobile.
Blackberry Bold appears to be something of an interim model: business-oriented but with a touch of pizazz. Before the end of the year we should see a model that will have some of the mass attraction of the iPhone but still hang on to Blackberry’s security and some of its business orientation especially pushed email.
How big is it in China?
No one is giving figures but the number would be, comparatively, very small. The BlackBerry has been in available in China since 2006 and seems currently available in Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Guangzhou.
Research in Motion is considering opening a factory in China.
Speaking at a press conference in Hong Kong, again for the launch of the BlackBerry Bold, Norm Lo, a vice-president of RIM Asia-Pacific said, ‘The mainland is a very strategic market for us and our relationship with China Mobile is for the long term. We’re certainly looking at the country as a potential production base.’
Source: Cellular News
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