China Unicom Launches BlackBerry Services

After rolling out BlackBerry Enterprise Solution (BES) in China last year, China United Netcom Ltd (China Unicom), the second biggest operator in China, started offering BlackBerry Internet Services to Chinese consumers over their 3G GSM network last week.

The state-owned provider’s customers will now be able to take advantage of the leading BlackBerry solution to manage their personal email, messaging and social communications. 200 million subscribers will also enjoy access to a wide range of mobile business and lifestyle applications available on BlackBerry App World, the official app store for BlackBerry smartphones.

This is big news, since China has now surpassed the U.S. in becoming the largest mobile market in the world by volume, with 1 billion cellular telephone subscribers including 120 million new 3G users jumping onto the bandwagon by now.

With BIS, China Unicom users will gain access to POP3 and IMAP email services with push notifications, for both corporate and personal accounts, from BlackBerry smart phones, the integrated web browser, native social messaging apps and other apps such as Yahoo! Messenger, MSN, and BlackBerry Messenger (BBM).

The launch is also good news for BlackBerry Alliance Program members in the country, since it broadens their target market, not only just for the corporate segment where BES is widely implemented. BlackBerry Alliance Program launched last year and has given Chinese developers access to development, marketing, sales, training, and other industry-leading resources on the BlackBerry platform to expand business opportunities and realize their full potential.

Certain mobile apps are targeted specifically for users in China such as Sina Weibo, QQ, China Daily, Shanghai Daily, Almighty King, Momo Weather, Caixin+, Chinese Majiang, and the like. These are available along with 85,000 apps in the BlackBerry App World.

Those who want to register can visit the provider’s online store (www.10010.com) or by calling hotline number 10010. Soon users will be entitled to sign up for the service from Unicom’s retail stores across China.

---

---

---