BlackBerry Bold to Be Awfully Expensive in Canada

Canadian mobile users seem to be out of luck this month, or, at least, those who intend to buy a BlackBerry Bold 9000. Rogers Wireless, the sole carrier to offer the new smartphone in the North American country, will apparently be selling it for prices starting at $399 with a contract agreement for three years. Logically, a contract for two or one year makes the Bold more expensive, while the free-of-contract price (although not known) will almost surely be on the hefty side.

For comparison, the new handset is sold in Europe for as low as 39.95 Euros ($58) with a two-year contract and the activation of a data plan.

Of course, the Bold is one of the best-featured and best-looking smartphones of the year, and definitely the coolest device ever unveiled by Research in Motion (until now, at least). Sporting a fashionable case, the new smartphone runs on the latest BackBerry OS and brings 1GB of internal memory, tri-band HSDPA connectivity, GPS, Wi-Fi, plus all the advanced features found in the previously-released BlackBerries. With the above-mentioned price, however, I'm not sure how many Canadian users will "dare to be Bold" (allusion to the slogan that Rogers associated with the new handset).

The $399 price was not announced by Rogers, but it has appeared in a leaked image found on CrackBerry. The image looks to be from an official Rogers presentation, which means that the high price will most probably be confirmed soon.

All in all, regardless of the final price of BlackBerry Bold from Rogers, I don't think there's anything Canadian users can do if they feel their beloved carrier is asking a bit too much for the handset.

There is still no word when Rogers decides to release the new BlackBerry, but this should happen before the end of August.