$800 for an Unlocked BlackBerry Bold - Pre-order Now

Unlike some other high-end handset (hint: it has a bitten Apple on it), BlackBerry Bold 9000 will be sold both unlocked and with various contract agreements from mobile carriers. Of course, the Bold is not yet available, but its unlocked version has shown up on an online retailer's website, priced at $792.99. Therefore, mobile users can now pre-order the smarpthone and will receive it when RIM decides to make it available.

The estimated arrival time of the unlocked BlackBerry Bold is September. However, it seems that its carrier-locked version will be released sooner. According to BlackBerry News, the first market to get the Bold will be Canada (RIM's home country), where Rogers prepares to release the smartphone tomorrow (July 29).

Afterwards, BlackBerry Bold will hit Europe: on August 1, Vodafone should release it in the UK, while on August 4, T-Mobile should do the same thing in Germany.

AT&T, the first US carrier to offer the new Bold, will apparently sell the handset only in September, at about the same time O2 should include it in its European line-up of products.

Back to the price of the unlocked BlackBerry Bold 9000, this is clearly one that not everyone can afford. It's even more expensive than the free-of-contract (but still locked) iPhone 3G, which was announced by AT&T to come, later this year, for $599 (the 8GB version) and $699 (the 16GB version).

On the other hand, Bold's price with a contract agreement is said to be similar to the one the iPhone 3G comes for - around $200.

Anyway, the Bold doesn't really have the same target as the iPhone 3G, being more oriented towards business usage (the full QWERTY keyboard and the BlackBerry software definitely make it a good choice for businessmen and businesswomen). And it's common knowledge that those in need of business handsets are willing to pay more for them.