Thursday, 8 June 2006

NTT DoCoMo to Sell Blackberry In Japan

UBS Securities Inc. analyst Robert Dennison in a research note in April this year had remarked, "We originally expected a Japan launch in 2007 but now believe pilots may start this calendar year with a commercial launch in [the fourth quarter,]". Dennison had said the Japanese BlackBerry will look like the 8700 high-speed device introduced in North America earlier this year. At that point RIM had declined to comment. Now, Reuters is reporting that NTT DoCoMo Inc., Japan's largest mobile phone company, will start selling RIM's BlackBerry wireless e-mail devices this fall. Dennison's prognosis has come true earlier than expected.

The devices will be marketed to DoCoMo's corporate customers, RIM co-chief executive Jim Balsillie told Reuters in an interview. "It's a big market because there's such a large corporate presence, both foreign multinationals in Japan and Japanese multinationals that operate abroad," Balsillie said. He declined to provide RIM's subscriber expectations for Japan, but said the Waterloo, Ontario-based company will provide some guidance when its next financial results are released on June 29.

BlackBerries to be sold in Japan will operate on both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks and will be usable around the world for voice and data communications, the company said.