NII Holdings and Research In Motion announced earlier this week that Nextel Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Peru would launch the BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone during the first quarter of 2009. The BlackBerry Curve 8350i will be the first smartphone in Latin America to offer the Push-to-Talk service, International Direct Connect and Wi-Fi capability, making it a powerful and flexible wireless solution for the mobile business user.

The BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone and the Push-to-Talk service will provide one-touch, instant and effective communication between NII subscribers in their home markets and with over 10 million iDEN subscribers in North and South America. In addition to enabling seamless access to personal and corporate email, the BlackBerry 8350i will also come with built-in Wi-Fi, a 2-megapixel camera, an internal antenna and a host of other features to help subscribers in Latin America push their business to new heights.

With an eye toward productivity and to facilitate adoption, the BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone is designed to easily integrate into the IT networks of organizations that use the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution to address key business requirements such as: Centralized management and support for IT departments with wireless IT policies, Advanced security features like AES and Triple DES encryption and password protection, Business grade functionality that further supports communication and collaboration.

The BlackBerry Curve 8350i is designed to deliver the file storage space the working world requires. In addition to its 128-MB of onboard memory, the smartphone will accept microSD/SDHC cards for up to 16 GB of storage. Users will be able to store spreadsheets, images or pictures, and with the preloaded DataViz Documents to Go software, they will be enabled to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly on the smartphone, making them more productive and prepared wherever they go.

The BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone will also feature built-in Global Positioning System (GPS). When used with BlackBerry Maps or other location-based applications and services, its owners can access turn-by-turn directions and other navigation features so they can keep moving in the right direction.