BlackBerry Bold to reach Japan by early 2009

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Kyle McInnes
on September 29, 2008, at 8:37 AM
in News
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Comments: 9 responses
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Japan BlackBerry Bold

Word coming straight out of Tokyo is that RIM is looking to release the BlackBerry Bold in Japan by early 2009. While the average Japanese person has smartphones that are lightyears beyond ours, with cold fusion and laser support, RIM’s COO Donald Morrison sees a huge opportunity in the enterprise space:

“The challenge for us is to get our products localised,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a briefing to introduce the Bold in Japan. “Once they are localised and pass the certification, the opportunity, particularly in the enterprise base, is an essentially still wide open market.”

NTT DoCoMo is already selling BlackBerry in Japan and in addition to the BlackBerry Bold, plans to almost double its smartphone line-up to 10 by next year to tap growing demand for phones with computer-like capabilities. For our friends in the land of the rising sun who just can’t wait, check out our full BlackBerry Bold review below.

The Ultimate BlackBerry Bold Review (with full device specs)
BlackBerry Bolds Around the World map

(via Reuters)

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  • http://cutter.net/ Jeff Cutter

    Actually I already have an unlocked one (from “3″ in HK) up and running on NTT DoCoMo. Works great – even Japanese text display an input.

    Sooooooooooooo much better than the 8707!

  • http://cutter.net Jeff Cutter

    Actually I already have an unlocked one (from “3″ in HK) up and running on NTT DoCoMo. Works great – even Japanese text display an input.

    Sooooooooooooo much better than the 8707!

  • asobu

    Does anyone know if the DoCoMo (Japan) Blackberry Bold will use a proprietary SIM card or accept any SIM card?

    After hearing about all the problems with displaying and/or inputting japanese characters on the Bold, even after flashing the ROM, if the DoCoMo version accepts a regular SIM card, I would imagine that this would solve all the problems and work in the U.S.

  • asobu

    Does anyone know if the DoCoMo (Japan) Blackberry Bold will use a proprietary SIM card or accept any SIM card?

    After hearing about all the problems with displaying and/or inputting japanese characters on the Bold, even after flashing the ROM, if the DoCoMo version accepts a regular SIM card, I would imagine that this would solve all the problems and work in the U.S.

  • http://cutter.net/ Jeff Cutter

    DoCoMo blackberries will most likely be SIM LOCKED which is a software lock that can be removed with an unlock code, either provided by docomo or easily purchased from ebay for about $10.

    The sim card has nothing to do with the text input whatsoever.

    I have had the bold for 2+ months now and it works great all across Japan and Japanese input works great.

    The only reason people aren’t having much luck with Japanese input is because very few CJK releases have been published. All of the chinese provider OS packs usually have the full CJK package.

  • http://cutter.net/ Jeff Cutter

    DoCoMo blackberries will most likely be SIM LOCKED which is a software lock that can be removed with an unlock code, either provided by docomo or easily purchased from ebay for about $10.

    The sim card has nothing to do with the text input whatsoever.

    I have had the bold for 2+ months now and it works great all across Japan and Japanese input works great.

    The only reason people aren’t having much luck with Japanese input is because very few CJK releases have been published. All of the chinese provider OS packs usually have the full CJK package.

  • http://cutter.net Jeff Cutter

    DoCoMo blackberries will most likely be SIM LOCKED which is a software lock that can be removed with an unlock code, either provided by docomo or easily purchased from ebay for about $10.

    The sim card has nothing to do with the text input whatsoever.

    I have had the bold for 2+ months now and it works great all across Japan and Japanese input works great.

    The only reason people aren’t having much luck with Japanese input is because very few CJK releases have been published. All of the chinese provider OS packs usually have the full CJK package.

  • http://www.analytica1st.com/ Alex

    Bold is doing not so bad in Japan, making it to the top ten at DoCoMo for the first time:
    http://analytica1st.com/analytica1st/2009/04/blackberry-bold-makes-it-into-top-10-of.html

  • http://www.analytica1st.com Alex

    Bold is doing not so bad in Japan, making it to the top ten at DoCoMo for the first time:
    http://analytica1st.com/analytica1st/2009/04/blackberry-bold-makes-it-into-top-10-of.html