ASIA : 3 Hong Kong and Research In Motion (RIM) announce the latest addition to 3 Hong Kong’s portfolio of BlackBerry® products with the introduction of the new BlackBerry 7100g™. The BlackBerry 7100g from 3 Hong Kong is expected to be available soon in mid-February.

The BlackBerry 7100g from 3 Hong Kong is another innovative product brought by RIM that delivers the power of BlackBerry® in a stylish ‘candy-bar’ mobile phone design.

The BlackBerry 7100g offers the entire range of popular BlackBerry features including mobile phone, text messaging, organiser and browsing capabilities. In addition to a large and bright, high-resolution colour screen, the BlackBerry 7100g supports Chinese text display with BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0. It also incorporates an integrated speakerphone that is ideal for conference calls, Bluetooth® support for wireless headsets and car-kit, quad-band, 32MB flash memory and 32 polyphonic ring tone and many more. With the comprehensive roaming coverage offered by 3 Hong Kong, users are able to stay connected with business partners and friends anytime anywhere in near 100 countries and destinations worldwide.

The BlackBerry 7100g features RIM’s breakthrough SureType™ keyboard technology that converges a phone keypad and a QWERTY keyboard to fit elegantly within the size of a traditional ‘candy bar’ phone design.

The integrated keyboard and software provides users with an instinctively familiar look and feel and allows users to dial phone numbers and type messages quickly, accurately and comfortably. Replacing the need for the traditional multi-tap phone approach, SureType fundamentally changes the way people think about typing on mobile phones.

Ms. Agnes Nardi, Managing Director of 3 Hong Kong said, “We are the first operator in Asia to bring in the innovative BlackBerry product for our users. Since its launch in Hong Kong in May 2002, it has been very well received by our users with its “push” email technology and a host of useful features. The new BlackBerry 7100g is another innovative product brought by RIM. It delivers a fully integrated BlackBerry experience with the breakthrough SureType keyboard, which allows users to dial phone number and type messages quickly and accurately. With a brighter colour screen, attachment opening features, speaker phone, Bluetooth and quad-band support, we are confident that the new BlackBerry 7100g will become another popular product for both business and individual users.”

“The new BlackBerry 7100g combines the highly advanced BlackBerry features with a traditional mobile phone design,” said Mark Guibert, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion. “It is the result of many years of research and development and we are very pleased to introduce this innovative device to Hong Kong with 3 Hong Kong.”

The BlackBerry 7100g weighs 120g and has a battery life (using the standard battery) of up to four hours talk time and up to eight days standby.

For individuals and small businesses, BlackBerry Internet Service™ allows users to access up to ten corporate and/or personal accounts (including Microsoft® Exchange, IBM Lotus® Domino™ and many popular ISP email accounts) from a single device.

For corporate users, BlackBerry Enterprise Server™ (formerly BlackBerry Web Client) software tightly integrates with Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino and works with existing systems to enable secure, push-based, wireless access to email and other corporate data. The BlackBerry 7100g supports the recently introduced BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 with Chinese text display.