RIM and NII launch BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone in Latin America
By Wilson Joseph
US-based digital wireless communication services provider NII Holdings and Research In Motion have announced that Nextel Argentina, Nextel Brazil, Nextel Mexico and Nextel Peru will launch the BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone during the first quarter of 2009.
According to Research In Motion (RIM), its BlackBerry Curve 8350i smartphone and Push-to-Talk service will provide instant communication between NII subscribers in their home markets and with over 10 million iDEN subscribers in North and South America. In addition to enabling seamless access to personal and corporate email, the BlackBerry 8350i will also come with built-in Wi-Fi, a two-megapixel camera, an internal antenna and a host of other features.
The company claims in addition to its 128-MB of onboard memory, the smartphone will accept microSD/SDHC cards for up to 16 GB of storage. Users will be able to store spreadsheets, images or pictures, and with the preloaded DataViz documents to Go software users will be able to edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents directly on the smartphone.
The smartphone also features built-in Global Positioning System (GPS). When used with BlackBerry Maps or other location-based applications and services, users can access directions and other navigation features.
Greg Santoro, chief marketing and strategy officer at NII Holdings, said: "Our customers in Latin America demand high-performance wireless services that enable them to stay with productivity and flexibility. This smartphone combines the power of Push-To-Talk with the BlackBerry platform's features."