‘Blackberry Users Now 70 Million Worldwide

REASSURING its customers of quality service after a brief technical hitch in Africa, Europe and some parts of Asia recently, Research In Motion (RIM), owners of the BlackBerry® solution, at the weekend, said that its subscriber base has hit an impressive 70 million mark based on the company’s last quarter report.

This comes as RIM’s Regional Director East, Central and West Africa, Mr. Waldi Wepener, announced the launch of the new Bold™ 9900, Torch 9810 and 9860 smart phones in Lagos on Friday, saying that the smart phones will be available for Airtel, Etisalat, Globacom and MTN subscribers.

According to him, the company has recorded 350,000 per cent growth since its first IPO in 1996.

Speaking to journalists in Lagos during the launch of the new blackberry smart phones on Friday, Wepener described Nigeria’s Information and Technology market as very impressive, saying that RIM, through its bouquet of blackberry and other solutions, is committed to playing big in it and the entire Africa market. He noted that, going forward, the continent is already positioned to play significant role in the global ICT growth pattern.

He said the new products seeks to expand RIM’s market in Africa and create awareness of the new BlackBerry® smartphones.

Wepener described the Bold 9900 as the thinnest BlackBerry smart phone, at only 10.5mm, and the first to offer “the perfect union” of a high performance keyboard and touch display integrated within the iconic BlackBerry Bold design.

“The new Bold 9900 smart phone offers a powerful combination of an outstanding keyboard and a beautiful touch display that we think customers will love.  Featuring the new BlackBerry 7 Operating System, it also delivers enhanced performance, faster browsing and richer multimedia. It will be available on the Nigerian market by November.”

The new Bold 9900 is also the first BlackBerry smart phone to include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that is enabling many new and exciting capabilities, including the ability to pair with NFC-enabled accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

The new smart phone, according to Wepener, also features a range of hardware enhancements, including a 1.2 GHz processor, a 24-bit high-resolution touch screen, HD video recording, and advanced sensors enabling new augmented reality applications such as Wikitude.

On the recent three-day technical hitch in some parts of the world, Wepener said: “We are apologising unreservedly to all Nigerians, we are doing all we can to prevent a reoccurrence of that again. RIM’s success is built on a history of technological excellence; Nigerians will continue to enjoy our commitment to serve them better.