The voice of the BlackBerry community.
Yesterday, RIM and China Mobile launched BlackBerry Internet Service for individual BlackBerry users. Starting this month, users can sign up at a China Mobile service center but will have to provide their own BlackBerry devices. Plans will cost from RMB 98 to 108 per month, offering 30MB and 50MB of data. Overage costs will be RMB 1/MB.
Any Chinese users/readers out there taking advantage of this?
We haven’t heard about the BlackBerry Curve 8980 for some time now but rumor has it that the device is hitting China Mobile and while it doesn’t feature 3G, it will be shipping with WiFi support. The other device we know that’s hitting China Mobile is the Bold 9700, which does feature 3G, giving Chinese users a couple of solid choices to choose from. Other than the Curve form factor and chicklet style keyboard, we can expect many of the same specs as the Bold 9700.
China Telecom has rolled out four monthly BlackBerry packages ranging in price from 189 yuan ($27.87 USD) to 589 yuan ($86.8732 USD) per month. This marks another milestone in a greater rollout strategy of bringing the BlackBerry solution to China. The big announcement we’re waiting for is full App World support in China which will hopefully give the app economy a boost.
This isn’t huge news or anything but more of an interesting tidbit of information about RIM for those who don’t know. RIM uses the services of a really cool company called Akamai to cache their pages globally. Akamai is a very well known company as they service some of the biggest companies in the world including Apple. Apple’s iTunes uses Akamai’s caching service to avoid the servers being overwhelmed. Songs, videos, Podcasts etc. are distributed by Akamai across their network of over 20,000 servers, which are placed at the ISP level across more than 70 countries. The traffic is routed using complex algorithms to direct each request to the right server so traffic can be efficiently managed. Not only does RIM use this service to cache web pages, but App World also uses this service to protect servers against crashing.
Continue reading ‘Random Tidbit: RIM Uses Akamai to Cache Webpages and App World’
Recently, the BlackBerry Curve 8910 launched with Digital China. The success of BlackBerry in China is interesting because the market brings some incredible potential especially since trade with the country has been running at a deficit for most Western countries. If Research in Motion can sell a few million devices in China, they will set a standard for the smartphone industry.
Li Tong is RIM’s General Manager in China and he sat down with BerryTimes.cn for an interview during the BlackBerry Curve 8910 launch. The interview has some interesting questions from a Chinese user perspective that highlight a lot of what RIM is going to need to work on in order to be successful in the region.
Continue reading ‘BlackBerry in China: User Frustrations Such as Price and Native Input’
RIM has launched the BlackBerry Curve 8910 in China in partnership with Digital China. We have seen lots of pics of the 8910 in the past with a trackpad, but a picture from the press event reveals the device with a trackball. Some weeks ago, we saw a spec sheet saying that trackball versus trackpad navigation was yet to be decided, and it seems they’ve gone with the trackball decision. It could be that a trackball lowers the price point, which is crucial for selling devices in a developing nation. Whatever the reason, it’s good to see BlackBerry hitting the Chinese market and it will be interesting to see how well they sell. There are a lot of gray market ripoffs in China, but the real deal is sure to be a success. Click through after the jump for more launch event and device pics courtesy of BerryTimes.cn as well as specs.
Continue reading ‘RIM and Digital China Launch the BlackBerry Curve 8910 in China’
