Canadian firm plans e-mail service launch
By Li Weitao (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-05-12 10:01
Canada-based Research In Motion Ltd (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry
handheld device, will launch a wireless e-mail service next week in
China.
This is a landmark development for RIM, which has been negotiating
with Chinese regulators and China Mobile for years about entry into the world's
largest mobile market by subscribers.
The service, which is extremely
popular among business users in North America, enables users to access e-mails
and make phone calls using a BlackBerry device.
RIM Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer James Balsillie said China Mobile would roll out the
BlackBerry service across the country next week.
Initially, the service
will be provided to international business travellers to China who already own a
BlackBerry device.
Currently those people, when travelling to China, have
to rely on a roaming service to use their BlackBerry devices, something that is
extremely costly.
With the BlackBerry service, also known as the "push
mail service," e-mails are sent directly to customers without first having to
log on to the Internet.
Balsillie, in an interview with China Daily
yesterday, said RIM would start selling Blackberry devices and corporate servers
in the coming months.
"We've seen very strong interest in China,"
Balsillie said.
Many leading companies in the world, especially in North
America, have already signed up to the service to allow their employees to
improve efficiency and productivity.
Corporate users generally generate
much higher average revenue per user for mobile operators.
The service
also allows subscribers to enjoy other applications, such as Internet browsing,
Intranet access, MMS (multimedia messaging services) and SMS (short messaging
services).
RIM, which already offers the BlackBerry service in
partnership with more than 160 mobile operators globally, has more than 5
million subscribers across the world.
Balsillie revealed that RIM is now
in talks with local OEM (original equipment manufacturing) companies about
producing BlackBerry devices in China.
"We are investing a lot in
(marketing) the BlackBerry service, in branding and in manufacturing in China,"
he said.
Currently, BlackBerry devices are manufactured in Eastern
Europe, Mexico and Canada.
A local partner means RIM will need a licence from
the government to make and sell handhelds with phone functions.
The
BlackBerry service is expected to give a strong boost to China Mobile's
non-voice services, known as data services or WVAS (wireless valued-added
services).
China Mobile has identified improving its revenues from data
services as a strategic priority amid tough competition with smaller rival China
Unicom in the voice communications market.
"E-mail is a killer
application for the corporate WVAS market," said Duncan Clark, managing director
of Beijing-based research and consulting firm BDA China Ltd.
Balsillie
said the partnership with China Mobile was an exclusive deal, which means it
will not link up with China Unicom or fixed-line telephone operators China
Telecom and China Netcom.
China Telecom and China Netcom are widely
expected to secure licences from the government to offer mobile services in the
future.
Balsillie would not disclose how long the exclusive deal with
China Mobile would last.
Unicom last month launched a similar service,
called Uni PushMail with the brand name RedBerry, which is apparently designed
to counter the link up between China Mobile and BlackBerry.
(For more biz stories, please visit Industry Updates)
|
