Airtel and Research In Motion launch the BlackBerry 8700g

Company News

New Delhi, March 18

Airtel, India’s leading mobile services provider and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today launched the new sleek BlackBerry® 8700g™ in India.

Operating on state of the art Airtel EDGE Network, the BlackBerry 8700g provides the ultimate balance of performance, design and function to provide a best-in-class solution for "push" email, phone, text messaging, browser, organizer and access to corporate data applications. The BlackBerry 8700g features a completely re-engineered device platform with an Intel® XScale® cellular processor, 64 MB flash memory and 16 MB SDRAM. It delivers dramatically faster web browsing, application performance and attachment viewing in an all-in-one stylish device. The launch of the faster BlackBerry 8700g further enhances Airtel’s portfolio of BlackBerry devices in India.

In today’s dynamic business environment where speedy communication and accessibility are key parameters to success, the BlackBerry 8700g is all set to redefine the way a high end enterprise professional communicates. The quad-band and EDGE-enabled BlackBerry 8700g includes premium phone features such as dedicated ‘send,’ ‘end,’ and ‘mute’ phone keys, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dial, call forwarding, as well as speakerphone and Bluetooth® support for wireless hands-free handsets and car kits.

Mr Hemant Sachdev, Director Marketing & Communications Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel and RIM have once again delivered a world class product to the high end enterprise and business consumer in India. The Blackberry 8700g commands class and deliver speed that complements the exclusive style and usage needs of the corporate user. Extremely responsive and easy to use, the 8700g will undoubtedly be the answer to managing business on the move.”

The BlackBerry 8700g also features a bright, high resolution, landscape QVGA (320x240) LCD display that supports more than 65,000 colors and delivers vivid graphics. The device includes an intelligent light sensing technology that automatically adjusts the brightness of the screen and keyboard to optimize visibility in outdoor, indoor and dark environment

Mr Norm Lo, Vice President, Asia Pacific at RIM said, “The BlackBerry 8700g is a major innovation that delivers optimised performance together with a striking color display and a stylish design. We are very excited to work with Airtel to launch the BlackBerry 8700g in India. Combined with the power of the proven BlackBerry platform and Airtel’s EDGE network, the BlackBerry 8700g provides mobile professionals with an exceptional solution to stay connected and productive.”

The BlackBerry 8700g expands Airtel’s current portfolio of BlackBerry-enabled devices, including the BlackBerry 7100g™ and BlackBerry 7290™, as well as other leading phones that support BlackBerry Connect™ such as the Nokia 9500 Communicator, Nokia 9300 smartphone and Sony Ericsson P910i.

BlackBerry 8700g key features –

Smoothly Integrated Phone Features

The stylish BlackBerry 8700g provides customers with an outstanding converged voice and data experience. The handset is light, comfortable and engineered to allow clear phone calls. It blends high-end phone features including speakerphone, quad-band GPRS/GSM and EDGE network support, dedicated “send,” “end” and “mute” phone keys, and other intuitive call management features including smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing and call forwarding. The BlackBerry 8700g also includes Bluetooth® support for hands-free headsets and car kits.

Brilliant LCD with Auto-Sensing Technology

The BlackBerry 8700g features a bright, high-resolution, landscape QVGA (320x240) LCD. The display supports over 65,000 colors and delivers vivid graphics. The display also incorporates intelligent light sensing technology that automatically adjusts the LCD and keyboard lighting to optimize visibility in outdoor, indoor and dark environments.

For Both Enterprises and Individuals

Another important and distinguishing advantage of the BlackBerry 8700g is the proven and popular BlackBerry platform, which offers individuals and companies of all sizes the necessary architecture and infrastructure to provide a superb “push” email experience and a solid foundation for other mobile data applications.

For corporate customers, BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ software tightly integrates with Microsoft® Exchange, IBM Lotus® Domino™ and Novell GroupWise® and works with existing enterprise systems to enable secure, push-based, wireless access to email and other data. Enterprise customers can also take advantage of BlackBerry MDS™ to enable secure, wireless access to back-end office applications.

For individuals and smaller businesses, BlackBerry Internet Service™ allows users to support up to 10 corporate and/or personal email accounts (including Microsoft Exchange, IBM Lotus Domino and most popular ISP email accounts) from a single device.

Pricing and Availability

The new EDGE-enabled BlackBerry 8700g is priced at INR 29,990/-.

For more information, contact:

RIM

Katie Lee,

Public Relations of Asia Pacific

+852 2216 8112

kale@rim.com

RIM Investor Relations:

+1 519 888 7465

investor_relations@rim.com