Carphone Warehouse to sell BlackBerrys

The Carphone Warehouse and Research In Motion have announced a strategic relationship to offer the latest range of BlackBerry smartphones directly through its network of The Carphone Warehouse outlets located throughout the UK and online through www.carphonewarehouse.com.

Launching across the UK's 780 stores, The Carphone Warehouse is the only supplier to sell the BlackBerry solution with activations available on three networks: O2, Orange, and T-Mobile.

With immediate effect, The Carphone Warehouse will stock the BlackBerry Curve, the BlackBerry 8800, and the BlackBerry Pearl smartphones.

The Carphone Warehouse has a presence in over ten countries in mainland Europe under the brand Phone House. The Phone House has an intent to work with local country network operators in France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland to mirror the retail strategy in the UK.

Charmaine Eggberry, Vice President and Managing Director, EMEA at Research In Motion said: "We are very pleased to be offering a range of the popular and proven BlackBerry smartphones directly to customers through The Carphone Warehouse.  Each BlackBerry smartphone offers users the freedom and connectivity of an all-in-one mobile handset with phone, email, web browser, media player and organizer along with access to thousands of applications for work and life."

Andrew Harrison, UK Chief Executive, The Carphone Warehouse said: "We are extremely excited about this relationship, which we believe will take BlackBerry smartphones beyond the boardroom and into the handbag.  The Carphone Warehouse is the world largest consumer retailer of mobile phones and through this partnership we aim to bring the benefits of BlackBerry smartphones to all."

The Carphone Warehouse customers can take advantage of renowned BlackBerry functionality which includes push-email, phone, SMS and MMS messaging, web browsing, multimedia, calendar & organiser capabilities as well as access to thousands of business and lifestyle applications.

Connection through the BlackBerry Internet Service supports up to 10 personal email accounts, including popular ISP email accounts such as TalkTalk, AOL, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, NTL and Virgin Media. Customers can also connect through their corporate email server with BlackBerry Enterprise Server, which integrates with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange, and Novell GroupWise.

The BlackBerry Curve is the smallest and lightest full-QWERTY BlackBerry smartphone, which comes packed with a comprehensive multimedia suite and integrated camera. The BlackBerry Curve offers a unique blend of communications, multimedia and web features to provide users with an exceptional mobile companion for both work and leisure.

The BlackBerry 8800 smartphone is packed with powerful communications capabilities and yet it is incredibly compact, slim and stylish. The BlackBerry 8800 also includes built-in GPS, BlackBerry Maps, a media player, expandable memory slot, and intuitive trackball navigation system.

The BlackBerry Pearl is the smallest BlackBerry handset yet at a mere 107mm x 50mm x 14.5mm and weighing just 89 grams. In addition to supporting phone, email, messaging, organiser, web browser and other mobile applications, the BlackBerry Pearl also incorporates a digital camera, MP3 player, video player and an expandable memory slot.