BlackBerry China Distribution plan announced by RIM

Research In Motion(RIM) has announced that Digital China, a Hong Kong based company will distribute their BlackBerry handsets in China. This deal will help in increasing the sales of BlackBerry phones in Mainland China. It was also announced that RIM will work in tandem with Chinese Telecom giants, China Mobile to provide services to the middle and small user. These two deals will ensure that the sale of BlackBerry ’smartphones’ will increase in the country. This decision comes amidst a time when the smartphone market is expanding in China and a spurt of iPhone sale had been seen.

The China Mobile and RIM cooperation deal was announced on Tuesday and includes plans to support China’s indigenous TD-SCDMA and TD-LTE technologies for BlackBerry phones in China. TD-SCDMA (Time Division Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access) is a technology on the lines of 3G and has been largely developed in China and is the mode used by China Mobile. The two have been working together for some time and now RIM will develop a new version of its BlackBerry handset that supports China’s homegrown 3G standard.

China Mobile is the world’s biggest phone carrier with terms to subscriber and has provided BlackBerry services in China since 2006. But with a reach limited to bigger corporates, the new deal will help in reaching to other segments of the small scale businesses. The Chinese handset market is estimated to be 650 Million and tapping in to the mid-wrung as well as smaller user will be a huge step for RIM and China Mobile. The latter will start this new service from next year and offer Chinese BlackBerry users access to multiple POP3/IMAP e-mail accounts.

Inking a double boost for BlackBerry, the Digital China collaboration will help in selling BlackBerry handsets in Mainland China. Digital China has a huge national network and selling the handsets through them will help in increasing the BlackBerry market share.

Sources:

• China Daily
• ABC News
• PC World

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