China Mobile the Exclusive Distributor of BlackBerry in China

• Posted: Tuesday, December 11, 2007
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• Author: pradhana
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• Filed under: Mobile Services, Smartphone

According to a report from Interfax, which cites Chinese BlackBerry manufacturer TCL as a source, China Mobile will become the exclusive distributor of the first BlackBerry to hit shelves in China this month.

"China Mobile will have exclusive rights to sell the new BlackBerry model, along with its current BlackBerry services, in China. We have already received an order for 10,000 of the handsets from China Mobile," TCL Communications public relations department official, Cheng Yanyan, said. The handset will be sold under the brand "Alcatel BlackBerry 8700," according to Yanyan.

In June last year, China Mobile, the largest mobile carrier in China, launched two BlackBerry push-mail service packages and began to provide replacement SIM cards for users bringing BlackBerry handsets from overseas. However, the carrier has not yet begun selling BlackBerry handsets.

While in late October this year, Canadian-based RIM, the designer, manufacturer and marketer of BlackBerry smartphones, announced that it had entered into a partnership agreement with Alcatel-Lucent and TCL Communications to distribute BlackBerry handsets in China. TCL Communications, the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer that owns the rights to the Alcatel mobile phone brand, helped RIM gain certification for the 8700 handset in the Chinese market.

Chinese newspaper Guangzhou Daily reported today that a Gome Mobile document lists the 8700 model as having a retail price of RMB 3450 ($466.3). Gome Mobile is a newly established handset chain subsidiary under Gome Electrical Appliance Holdings Ltd.

The newspaper report said that Gome Mobile recently signed a purchase agreement with Alcatel for 500,000 new unnamed handsets, which implied that China Mobile might not be the only retail channel. However, Cheng from TLC Communications told Interfax today that the purchase agreement between Gome and Alcatel does not include the Alcatel BlackBerry 8700 handset.

The new 8700 handset features a synchronized e-mail, calendar and address book between handset and personal computer. The China model will support one e-mail account and will be compatible with various e-mail clients, such as IBM's Lotus Notes and Microsoft Outlook, a technical official from RIM's Beijing office previously told Interfax.

China Mobile currently offers two BlackBerry tariffs, one at RMB 398 ($53.8) per month and the other at RMB 598 ($80.8) per month. [Interfax]

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