14 DAY TRIAL // Canada's RIM is trying to take over the Asian markets too (and not only the North American and European ones), as, after launching the BlackBerry Bold in countries like Indonesia and Singapore, it just announced the smartphone for Taiwan.
Set to be released at the beginning of November via Taiwan Mobile, the country's second largest carrier, the Taiwanese BlackBerry Bold will have an unusual QWERTY keyboard, not in terms of its physical form, but when it comes to the characters it features. More exactly, the keyboard has, in addition to the normal characters, a set of Chinese BoPoMoFo symbols that should allow Taiwanese users to view and write Chinese text.
Keyboard aside, BlackBerry Bold also comes with its well-known features that include: quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA connectivity, GPS and Wi-Fi, a 480 x 320 pixel TFT display, full HTML browser, document editor, a 2 Megapixel camera with flash, 1GB of expandable memory and so on.
Talking about the new smartphone, Norm Lo, vice president of Asia Pacific, Research In Motion, stated, "The BlackBerry Bold smartphone blends exceptional functionality and performance in a stylish design together with localized needs for the Taiwanese market. We are very excited to be working with Taiwan Mobile to introduce this breakthrough smartphone."
George C. Chou, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Enterprise Business Group at Taiwan Mobile, added, "We are glad to bring the BlackBerry Bold to Taiwan, as we have seen keen interest in BlackBerry smartphones. With the new BlackBerry Bold from Taiwan Mobile coming equipped with a hybrid QWERTY-BoPoMoFo keyboard – which supports the most popular Chinese input in this market – as well as GPS and Wi-Fi network support, we believe customers will enjoy great benefits and efficiency in their professional and personal life."
Taiwan Mobile will sell the BlackBerry Bold for lots of prices, depending on the data plan you choose. The smartphone retails at 21,500 TWD (660 USD or 475 Euros), but corporate users can buy it for as little as 6,500 TWD (200 USD or 145 Euros) if they also opt for a BlackBerry Enterprise Server unlimited data plan.
You can already pre-order the Bold, via Taiwan Mobile's official website found at this address.