Posted on August 18, 2009, at 10:16 am .
App World has arrived in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela. It’s not clear whether this will be the same App World that we see here in North America, but chances are that the same applications will be distributed.
The only major difference is that users can choose to download BlackBerry App World in English or Spanish. A Portuguese version of the client interface is expected to be available later in 2009
Not only is this good for Latin America, but it should prove fruitful for the entire BlackBerry nation. App World does a great job of spreading smartphone application awareness, and teaching users that everyday tasks can be made much simpler with the use of a BlackBerry app. This smartphone lifestyle will promote more young Latin Americans to take up development as a career, and hopefully bring more bright minds to the BlackBerry platform.
This also reflects RIM’s strategy of making a tremendous push into Latin America as an emerging market. According to a recent interview with Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis, the region could prove very profitable for RIM. “The thought that Latin America and Western Europe could someday be like North America in terms of market penetration gets us very, very excited,” says Balsillie. Let’s hope he’s right!
Posted on July 8, 2009, at 2:58 pm .
Simon picked up the story that RIM VP Jeff McDowell confirmed App World will be hitting France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, this month, with Brazil and India next on the list.
Congratulations to RIM legal for entering the French market, which is a relatively difficult market to enter. The US Commerical Service has echoed this sentiment, and it has portrayed the French market in a way that could be deemed isolationist.
“Enforcement of complex technical standards and lengthy testing procedures sometimes appears to exceed reasonable requirement levels needed to assure proper performance and safety, for example in the areas of electronics, telecommunications equipment, and agriculture phytosanitary standards.”
It takes several months for RIM legal to sort through the legal documents and conditions for App World to enter a new market. It took RIM legal 2 months to get App World to Britain and there are many European countries with more complicated and restrictive laws surrounding content distribution. So while getting App World around the world is a top priority, it could be a couple years before we see global penetration.
[Via]
Posted on October 27, 2008, at 10:53 am .
Great news for iDEN BlackBerry users not on the Sprint network. RIM and NII Holdings jointly announced the impending release of the BlackBerry Curve 8350i in Latin America during Q1 of 2009. the iDEN BlackBerry will see release in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Peru.
For those not in the know, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i is the first iDEN BlackBerry since the old 7100i, and features push-to-talk capability as well as Wi-Fi. There are about 10 million North and South American iDEN subscribers eager to get their hands on this device. You can read the full press release after the jump.
BlackBerry Curve 8350i coming to Latin America
Posted on September 2, 2008, at 9:16 am .
It’s been confirmed that Brazilian carrier Claro is now offering the BlackBerry Bold in all of its 3G, Wi-Fi, GPS, crystal-clear-screeny goodness, although it’s apparently not showing up in their online store. We had heard of Claro bringing the BlackBerry 9000 to Chile around this timeframe, so maybe some Chileans out there can let us know if they got it too. Head on over to Claro’s site to find the retailer closest to you and see if they have it in stock.
Thanks Luciano!
(via BlackBerry World BR)
Posted on October 10, 2007, at 8:31 am .
Last week at Futurecom, TIM Brazil and Garmin announced that they’ll be launching a mapping solution for the BlackBerry 8800 and their newly-released BlackBerry 8310 before the year is out, covering over 70 cities across the country. Garmin is a top-shelf name in GPS, and there’s no doubt that they’ll pump out some solid software for our readers down south.
Posted on October 2, 2007, at 11:14 am .
It was announced today that Claro, TIM and Vivo will be offering the BlackBerry 8310 to Brazilians immediately, and widespread release through Latin America will be happening come November. The BlackBerry 8310 is packing the Curve’s form-factor and standard features (3.5mm headphone jack, trackball, camera, microSD slot) plus GPS capability. No word on price, but if anyone knows Portugese and can dig up a number from the carriers’ sites, we’d be much obliged.
