Research in Motion, the Canadian company behind the popular BlackBerry smartphones, announced the upcoming availability of BlackBerry Bold 9000 in Luxembourg and France.

 

In Luxembourg, the new BlackBerry will be offered via TELE2TANGO, the small country's second largest mobile carrier, starting September 9, for 390 Euros (566 USD) without a subscription. Users who opt for a contract agreement will be able to get the Bold for prices starting at 109 Euros (159 USD).

 

While the Bold release across Luxembourg can't bring huge profits to RIM (since the country has less than 0.5 million mobile users), a French release can surely do that. France will get the Bold starting mid-September, via its third largest carrier, Bouygues Telecom. BT's business users will be able to buy the new smartphone for prices starting at 199 Euros (287 USD), together with an enterprise plan.

 

No word yet on a Bold launch via the other two major French mobile operators, Orange and SFR. However, they surely do not want to be late in serving the new Berry, so it's expected that both carriers will soon add the Bold to their line-up of smartphones, allowing about all of France's mobile users to buy it.

 

Officially presented by RIM back in May, the Bold 9000 brings all the features of the previously-released BlackBerries, adds new ones and warps the package into a fashionable case. The handset's highlights include: quad-band GSM (850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz) and tri-band HSDPA (850 / 1900 / 2100 MHz) connectivity, a wide and vibrant display with a 480 x 320 pixel resolution, 1GB of extendable memory, GPS and A-GPS, Wi-Fi, full HTML browser, BlackBerry email, Music and Video players, a 2 Megapixel flash camera and 1GB of internal memory.

 

The French Bold will bring special stuff, like easy access to Le Figaro, LCI and BFM, or a 12-month Webraska Navigation license, for real-time traffic info in France.