Vodafone Italia and RIM have announced the BlackBerry Curve 8520 in Italy. Starting September 3rd, the device is available and costs €249 with no contract from Vodafone outlets and from Vodafone’s online shop.
At Wal-Mart, this device costs $399.99 without a contract, but with a contract, you get it for $49.99.
It’s pretty incredible how much money is knocked off the initial price given a contract. It’s hard to imagine why anyone would go out and purchase a device these days without getting a contract.
Are you in Europe? Here are a couple questions for you:
1) Do you regularly buy a device with no contract?
2) What do you think of the price for the 8520?
3) On average, how much do you spend per month on your phone bill?
The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is making the rounds internationally and yesterday the device hit Italy. This is the precursor to launch and RIM is saying users can expect the device this month.
No details on pricing yet but we’ll keep you updated.
Is the BlackBerry Curve 8520 available in your country? Sound off!
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.
Read from Simon that App World is rumored to launch in Italy July 20th. I have heard that it takes RIM legal at least 2 months to enter each new country so it could be as long as 4-5 years before we see all the major European countries fitted with App World.
Make sure you get a notification about when App World is available in your language:
Milan, Italy and Waterloo, Canada – Vodafone Italia and Research In Motion today announced the availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone in Italy. The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 makes keeping in touch with the office, family, and friends easy thanks to the smartphone’s extensive set of features, including: built-in Wi-Fi, a fast processor (512Mhz), GPS, and an astounding high resolution display.
The BlackBerry Curve 8900 is available now from Vodafone Italia retail stores and online at www.vodafone.it for the price of 429€. Tariff information is available after the jump.
BlackBerry Nation, assemble! The fine gents over at Smrtguard are in need of your help. It turns out that they’re looking to translate their award-winning software PeekaWho into Italian and German, but are without the requisite skills (i.e. being literate in Italian and German)!
Are there any Italian or German-speaking members of the BlackBerry Nation willing to lend a helping hand? If so, Smrtguard is willing to throw in a free copy of PeekaWho and FollowUp! for your BlackBerry, as well as a lifetime supply of appreciation.
All those interested can email support|AT|smrtguard|dot|com with the heading ‘Translate’.
First the BlackBerry Storm video, now this: those Italians get to have all the fun! That’s right, it appears that Italian carrier TIM is the first to release the BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220, RIM’s first flip phone. Priced at 269€ (approx. $370 USD), the Pearl Flip should appeal to those fashionable Italians with its clean lines and black coloring. You can see the full specs (in Italian!) after the jump.
At this point, no one should be surprised that this Italian promotional video of the BlackBerry Storm has appeared on the Internet. However, what is surprising is just how sexy and chic the device comes across: it certainly looks as though the Storm can give any other handset a run for its money.
In addition to the exciting video above, CrackBerry.com has posted the latest ‘leaked’ information from the latest Verizon internal ‘Talking Up a Storm’ email mailout. You can read the mailout, which deals with the BlackBerry Storms’ global features after the jump.
Previously available in only North America, BlackBerry Unite! has now been localized for all around the globe. Central American, Italian, German, French, Asia Pacific and Spanish versions of the software is available for small groups of up to 5 to share media, contacts, and take care of management tasks. There are plenty of small and medium businesses out there that could use some extra functionality from their BlackBerrys, and when the software is free, it’s hard to go wrong.
The latest BlackBerry operating system has been making the rounds by way of private beta builds for awhile now, but it looks like a few carriers are starting to make them publicly available, including Orange UK for the BlackBerry 8120 and BlackBerry 8320, as well as TIM Italy for the 8100, 8300 and 8310. Odds are these will work hunky-dory for your own device, so feel free to give ‘em a shot and get on fresh goodies like HTML e-mail viewing (if your BIS supports it), remote e-mail lookup, native document viewing, and plenty more.
Milan, Italy and Waterloo, Canada – Vodafone Italia and Research In Motion today announced the availability of the BlackBerry Curve 8900 smartphone in Italy. The new BlackBerry Curve 8900 makes keeping in touch with the office, family, and friends easy thanks to the smartphone’s extensive set of features, including: built-in Wi-Fi, a fast processor (512Mhz), GPS, and an astounding high resolution display. 
The latest BlackBerry operating system has been making the rounds by way of private beta builds for awhile now, but it looks like a few carriers are starting to make them publicly available, including 
