Research In Motion teams up with China Telecom

Research In Motion and China Telecom are teaming up to launch sales of the BlackBerry, it has been announced.  The deal with China Telecom, which is the countryÔÇÖs smallest operator, should help Waterloo, Ontario-based Research In Motion (RIM) to build its presence in the worldÔÇÖs largest mobile services market by subscribers. The company is thought to be especially keen to make a breakthrough in China to avoid losing market share to smartphones powered by GoogleÔÇÖs Android and to Motorola in other areas of the world. The companyÔÇÖs global market share peaked at 20.8 percent in the third quarter of 2009. However, in Asia, the largest regional smartphone market, RIM has only a three percent share of the market. RIM currently gets more than half its revenue from US sales. In China, the BlackBerry is currently only available through market-leading China Mobile and IT distributor Digital China. RIM trails FinlandÔÇÖs Nokia in the Chinese phone market, which has a 32 percent share. The region was NokiaÔÇÖs biggest market last year with 17.6 million phones sold in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the fourth quarter. China Telecom will begin by offering RIMÔÇÖs BlackBerry to corporate customers only, starting in 16 of the countryÔÇÖs 31 provinces. In a statement, the two companies said: ÔÇ£Following the launch today, China Telecom plans to offer its customers the powerful and feature-rich BlackBerry solution with a selection of service plans. China Telecom understands the needs of its enterprise customers and is pleased to launch the BlackBerry solution, providing an end-to-end integrated platform that delivers effective and efficient communications.ÔÇØ Since acquiring licences for 3G services in January last year, ChinaÔÇÖs three state-owned mobile operators have entered into an increasingly competitive battle for subscribers. China Mobile has 538 million subscribers and China Unicom has 147 million. China Telecom has been aggressively promoting its wireless service, doubling its subscriber base to more than 56 million people in its first year. Its number of 3G users totalled 5.57 million at the end of the first quarter of 2010. The company estimated that its 3G subscribers would exceed 17 million by the end of this year through its alliance with RIM. China Unicom began selling the iPhone in October last year. RIMÔÇÖs rival Apple said in April that sales there had risen to almost $1.3 billion. RIM is the worldÔÇÖs biggest smartphone maker. The company shipped 37 million BlackBerrys globally during its last fiscal year.