Research in Motion has obtained permission from Beijing to sell its popular Blackberry mobile email device in mainland China, the world's biggest cell phone market, media said Wednesday.
The Canadian firm had been trying since 1999 to get approval for its handsets from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry, and it finally came last month, the Toronto-based Globe and Mail newspaper said.
Citing a RIM manager in Beijing, the paper said the iconic Blackberry 8700g handsets would go on sale in China at the end of August for about 700 US dollars each. The company had already received 5,000 advance orders, he said.
In recent years, RIM had launched in other key markets such as Japan, India, Singapore and South Korea, but China, with some 500 million cell phone users, had remained a holdout. RIM had registered its Blackberry trademark in China in 1999, a few months after launching in North America.
In 2002, the Waterloo, Ontario-based firm signalled its intention to enter the Chinese market and partnered with a Chinese carrier, China Mobile, two years later, but then hit regulatory gridlock. Intense lobbying by Canadian officials finally helped to clear the roadblock, the Globe and Mail said. RIM officials could not be reached for comment.
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