The first BlackBerry smartphone to come in the popular flip form factor
Istanbul, Turkey, and Waterloo, Ontario – Turkcell and Research In Motion today announced the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 for customers in Turkey. The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip smartphone harnesses the power of the BlackBerry platform and packs a wide range of useful features into a sleek flip design. Its spacious keyboard allows easy typing and dialing and the flip design opens to a large, vibrant internal display, and provides the satisfying finality of ending a call by closing the phone. Customers will also appreciate the smartphone’s external display for previewing calendar reminders, email, text messages and phone calls at a glance.
Please visit www.turkcell.com.tr for other BlackBerry options or call +90 444 0532 for additional information.
Even though Orange is thinking about pulling the BlackBerry Bold from its device lineup, the carrier is still fully committed to BlackBerry, though at a decidedly more low cost scale. Our pal Ronen from BerryReview has noticed that Orange UK has posted the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 in Titanium and Indigo as ‘coming soon’ with a pay-as-you-go option. As you probably remember, RIM ceo-Jim Balsillie indicated during the fiscal Q3 2009 conference call that pre-paid BlackBerry options would be a growing trend worldwide.
Pricing information is unavailable at this time, but you can hit the link below to sign up for email notifications from Orange.
When we first reported that Orange UK was suspending BlackBerry Bold shipments due to ongoing technical problems — unexplained crashes, poor reception and dropped calls — it was a serious blow to RIM. Flagship products are supposed to be, well, a company’s standard bearer, and (on Orange UK at least) the BlackBerry Bold was waving the white flag.
However, at the time the issues were attributed to a launch OS that was… less than robust. Orange reinstated the BlackBerry Bold with the updated OS 4.6.0.162, but this has apparently not solved the problem. We hope for RIM’s sake that they can get this situation under control before Orange pulls the Bold permanently, but Orange customers deserve a BlackBerry that works. Perhaps an update to a new OS (4.6.0.190 perhaps?) will get the job done.
Our Danish friends are getting a nice little present from RIM and 3 just in time for Christmas, with the announcement of the BlackBerry Bold. By now, 5 months after its initial launch, most of you know why the Bold is such a great stocking stuffer: 3G HSDPA, Wi-Fi, GPS, all rolled into one slim, sexy package with a HVGA screen.
3Business is offering the BlackBerry Bold for DKK 319.20 on an 18 month contract or for DKK 1,999 straight up. You can find out more information at their website below, but make sure to check out our exhaustive BlackBerry Bold review first. Merry Christmas, Danes!
Coming straight from Lisbon, TMN and RIM jointly announced today the launch of the BlackBerry Bold in Portugal. Our Portuguese friends will love the Bold’s 3G network speed, Wi-FI capability and half-VGA screen. TMN’s launch of the BlackBerry Bold brings their total BlackBerry offering to three, with the BlackBerry Pearl 8110 and BlackBerry Curve 8310 also available.
No pricing information has been posted on TMN’s website, but I’ve included a link just in case I missed it (my Portuguese is a little rusty). Interested parties can also check out our exhaustive BlackBerry Bold review.
Anyone familiar with SlingPlayer should be chomping very excited that it will soon be available for BlackBerry. That’s right, Sling Media announced late last night that SlingPlayer Mobile for BlackBerry will enter public beta beginning December 30th. The public beta will be available to BlackBerry users in the US, Canada and UK initially. Here’s a list of supported BlackBerrys for the public beta:
Samsung has made a play to improve their enterprise market share today, naming former RIM executive Marcus Stone as the head of Smartphones UK and Ireland. Stone had held several sales and marketing positions during his seven years at RIM. Derek Williamson, Samsung’s general manager, while announcing the new hire, also addressed the need to specifically target the enterprise market.
Williamson said: ‘As we grow more rapidly within the UK smartphone market, it is critical that we assign more time and focus on this sector. We already have an exciting smartphone portfolio with an extensive range, and we have plenty more to come with some incredible products planned for next year.’
I guess there is more than one reason why RIM is hiring.
The final destination in our BlackBerry launchtrip around the world is lovely Spain. It is here that the Phone House has announced that it will be launching both the BlackBerry Bold and BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 later this month.
A quick search of www.phonehouse.es shows a 269 € price for the BlackBerry Bold but nothing yet for the Pearl Flip. To bide your time until launch, you can read our exhaustive BlackBerry Bold review with full device specs below.
In our second BlackBerry launch post of the day, we jet from the United Kingdom to the Kingdom of Norway. Coming straight out of Oslo, Trigcom and RIM have officially announced the launch of the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220.
“Trigom is pleased to offer the BlackBerry Pearl Flip in Norway, so all devoted clamshell users can benefit from the powerful BlackBerry smartphone experience that combines phone, email and messaging, multimedia and web access with the support of thousands of other mobile applications,” says Rachael Babcock, CTO at Trigcom.
Trigcom is selling the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 for what looks to be 5,198 krones (Norwegian readers please help me out with this) on a 12 month contract. You can find full BlackBerry 8220 device specs after the jump and purchasing info at the link below.
With all the BlackBerry Storm launch news overtaking Canada, BlackBerry Cool has sadly neglected BlackBerry launches in the rest of the world. No longer! Expect this to be the first of many launch posts.
Carphone Warehouse and RIM announced that the BlackBerry Curve 8900 will go on sale on December 20th in UK stores nationwide and on their website, www.carphonewarehouse.com.
Ross Yealland, Head of New Propositions at The Carphone Warehouse said “The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 is destined to become a stylish must have phone. We predict both new and existing customers will be fighting to get their hands on one from launch.”
Our UK friends will be able to get the BlackBerry Curve 8900 for free on an 18 month contract and £35.00 line rental. Sounds like a great price for the next-gen Curve.
Samsung has made a play to improve their enterprise market share today, naming former RIM executive Marcus Stone as the head of Smartphones UK and Ireland. Stone had held several sales and marketing positions during his seven years at RIM. Derek Williamson, Samsung’s general manager, while announcing the new hire, also addressed the need to specifically target the enterprise market.
