Airtel Launches BlackBerry 8520 in India

Just a little while ago RIM announced their new lower end 8520 handset with US’s T Mobile carrier. Today Airtel and Research In Motion (RIM) have launched the BlackBerry Curve 8520, the slim new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series of smartphones here in India.

“It has been our commitment to introduce innovative and cutting edge technology to our users and we are delighted to be the first to introduce the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 Smartphone to all Airtel users at an aggressive price of Rs 15,990,” said Raghunath Mandava, Chief Marketing Officer, Mobile Services, Airtel. “We believe that the BlackBerry Curve 8520 will appeal to young professionals, students and a broad spectrum of retail customers who want the exceptional mobile experience for messaging, social networking, email, music and entertainment that you get from a BlackBerry Smartphone.”

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 also features -

• 2.46-inch TFT Touchscreen with a 320 x 240 pixel resolution
• 109 mm x 60 mm x 13.90 mm (L x W x D) and weighs 106 grams (including battery)
• GPRS/EDGE
• Wi-Fi
• a touch-sensitive optical track pad
• feature dedicated media keys (first BlackBerry Smartphone to have these keys)
• 256MB Flash memory and, microSD/SDHC memory card slot (up to 16GB and 32GB cards when they launch)
• a 512Mhz next generation processor
• 2 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth (2.0)
• 3.5 mm stereo headset jack
• DivX, XviD video support

Other key features also include voice activated dialing, BlackBerry Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly sync music from iTunes or Windows Media Player with the Smartphone and easy access to social networking services like Facebook, MySpace, Flickr, Windows Live Messenger and BlackBerry Messenger
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“RIM is delighted to introduce the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 in India with Airtel. With its combination of industry-leading messaging capabilities, consumer-friendly features and Airtel's aggressive marketing support, we are confident that the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will help appeal to a much wider audience of customers in India,” said Frenny Bawa, Vice President, India, Research In Motion.
Airtel customers can sms ‘BB’ to 543210 to register to purchase the BlackBerry Curve 8520 and to get more information about the plans offered with the smartphone.

Offered at the price of Rs.15,990, the new BlackBerry Curve 8520 will be available nationally from Airtel's authorised outlets through Bharti Teletech Limited across India on August 7th.