The paper quoted a manager at RIM’s Beijing office as saying it has already received 5,000 advance orders for the device, mostly from corporate customers, especially foreign multinationals with offices in China. It will probably be sold in China at the equivalent of about CDN 700 ($661).
RIM already sells in Japan and South Korea, and has been trying to break into China began in 1999. It launched the device in Hong Kong in 2002, bit it has faced long delays in getting permission to sell in mainland China.
RIM is enjoying cult status in the booming corporate market and in its first quarter net income rose by 73% to $223.2m on revenue up 76.5% at $1bn.
