AT&T BlackBerry Bold on Sale in US

Thumbnail image for blackberrybold.jpgThe BlackBerry Bold goes on sale today in the U.S. only
from AT&T.

Operating on the nation's fastest 3G network, the BlackBerry Bold
smartphone features a powerful combination of global 3G capabilities in
conjunction with international wireless coverage,
built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and a multitude of choices in the form of tens of
thousands of services and applications. The BlackBerry Bold has free access to AT&T's Wi-Fi Hotspots.

Some
reviewers adore it while others don't like a few glitches. Overall
Wireless and Mobile News Review of Reviews rates the BlackBerry Bold 4
out 5. The AT&T news release notes:

The BlackBerry Bold comes pre-loaded with several popular applications
including AT&T Navigator, YELLOWPAGES.COM Mobile, selections from AT&T Mobile
Music service -- XM Radio Mobile(TM) and MusicID -- and popular video clips
from its CV service. AT&T also provides customers with tens of thousands of
uses for their BlackBerry Bold smartphone through content available in the
AT&T MEdia Mall and from third-party partner sites. Through AT&T MEdia Mall, a
one-stop shopping experience for applications, ringtones, games and graphics,
BlackBerry Bold customers have access to:

-- Popular applications such as eBay, Wikimobile and SpamFilter.

-- Dozens of games including Scrabble, NCAA Football 09 by EA Sports,
World Series of Poker Pro Challenge, Tetris, Bejeweled and Tiger Woods 09 by
EA Sports.

-- Millions of full track songs available from Napster Mobile(R) in
addition to tens of thousands of ringtones.


Beyond MEdia Mall, AT&T has certified initially 18 solutions from
third-party application providers specifically for the launch of the
BlackBerry Bold that are targeted to businesses of all sizes. These include:

-- Applications covering such areas as health care, financial services,
field service, sales, customer relationship management and public
safety/government.

-- Applications from such providers as Antenna Software, DataViz Inc.,
Diversinet, Igea Care, Pyxis Mobile, Salesforce.com, TeleNav, Inc., Vaultus
and Xora.Inc

Additionally, customers can access third-party applications from their
BlackBerry Bold, such as Pocket Express from Handmark, a news and information
service, and social networking tools like Facebook, MySpace and JuiceCaster.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone features a lustrous black exterior, satin
chrome-finished frame and a stylish, leatherette backplate with a stunning
half-VGA (480 x 320 at 217 ppi) color display for eye-popping visuals and a
newly designed full QWERTY keyboard for exceptionally fast and easy typing. On
the inside, a powerful new 624 megahertz (MHz) mobile processor that provides
impressive performance, more storage memory than ever before -- 1 gigabyte
(GB) on board and up to 16 GB via its microSD/SDHC expansion slot -- and a
rich set of multimedia capabilities, including an advanced media player for
music, videos and photos and a 2 megapixel camera with built-in flash, zoom
and video recording, as well as an optimized Web-browsing experience with
desktop-style depiction.


And of course, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives users the industry's
leading mobile messaging solution. It works with BlackBerry(R) Enterprise
Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM(R)
Lotus(R) Domino(R), Microsoft(R) Exchange and Novel(R) GroupWise(R)
environments, as well as BlackBerry(R) Professional Software for small
businesses. It also works with BlackBerry(R) Internet Service, which gives
users push-based access to as many as 10 supported work or personal e-mail
accounts.

T
he BlackBerry Bold smartphone operates on AT&T's 3G BroadbandConnect
network, which currently is available in more than 320 major metropolitan
areas in the U.S. and, by year-end, AT&T expects to offer the service in
nearly 350 leading U.S. markets. In addition to 3G connectivity, the
BlackBerry Bold is also designed to connect seamlessly with AT&T's
nationwide(1) EDGE network, which is available in more than 13,000 cities and
towns and along some 40,000 miles of major highways. When abroad, customers
can use the Bold to make a phone call in more than 200 countries and access
data in more than 150, including more than 60 with 3G networks. AT&T has the
broadest international wireless coverage of any U.S. carrier.


The BlackBerry Bold smartphone is available now for as low as $299.99
in AT&T retail stores nationwide, through http://www.att.com and select
national retailers, as well as through AT&T's business-to-business sales
teams. Customers who want personal e-mail access and Web browsing with
BlackBerry(R) Internet Service can choose the BlackBerry Personal Unlimited
data plan for as low as $30 a month with a qualified voice contract. Unlimited
corporate e-mail and data access via BlackBerry Enterprise Server or
BlackBerry) Professional Software are available for as low as $45 a month
when a qualified voice plan is also chosen. Voice plans start at $39.99 per
month.

BlackBerry Bold customers with unlimited data plans also qualify for free
AT&T Wi-Fi(SM) service on the nation's largest Wi-Fi network, with more than
17,000 hot spots including Starbucks, Barnes & Noble and thousands of other
locations.