BlackBerry Pearl 8100 Smartphone to be launched in India by RIM and Bharti Airtel

Canada-based Research in Motion (RIM) and Bharti Airtel are all set to launch the BlackBerry Pearl 8100, a new candybar style phone in India. The original BlackBerry was the quintessential CEO gizmo. But now, the BlackBerry has undergone a makeover and is targeting the fun-loving youth, with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100.


The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 weighs just 89 gms and has several features such as a 1.3 megapixel digital camera, multimedia capabilities and expandable memory. In comparison, the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is thinner than the Moto Razr and shorter than the Moto Slvr.

The feature-rich smartphone incorporates the best technology and is a quad-band GSM/GPRS and EDGE-enabled mobile application powerhouse.

The built-in 64MB flash memory of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 is now expandable with a MicroSD card. Thus users will have plenty of storage space for music, pictures, videos and data files.

The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 delivers exceptional phone quality with easy-to-use phone features including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), MP3 and MIDI ring tones as well as support for polyphonic tunes.

Other brilliant features of the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 include intuitive call management features such as smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing and call forwarding. The Blackberry Pearl 8100 also features a speakerphone, Bluetooth 2.0, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals such as a GPS receiver.

“We are definitely trying to reach out to broader segments of the market. It (BlackBerry) is fundamentally a strong business tool. We have listened to the customers and with the Pearl, we are taking a giant leap forward in meeting customer demands,” Norm Lo, Asia-Pacific vice-president of RIM said. “We have a great relationship with Bharti. With Bharti, we have seen the demand accelerating and we are bullish because there is an organic growth here which will take business up multi-fold. That is why we are launching it first in India,” he said.

Sanjay Kapoor, joint president (mobility), Bharti, said, “The new device takes away the need to carry two phones — one for data applications and the other for voice needs. The Pearl allows you to amalgamate voice and data applications into one.”

The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 will be out in stores all over India in the next two to three weeks and will be priced at Rs. 24,999. For more information, visit the official BlackBerry Pearl Web site.