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Research In Motion getting approval to sell BlackBerrys in China has been a "long time coming," said IDC analyst Sean Ryan. "Any time you're dealing with data transfer over proprietary lines," as with the BlackBerry, Ryan noted, it is likely to raise concerns in a controlling government such as China's.

Eight years of trying to sell BlackBerrys in China has paid off for Research In Motion (RIM), which finally won permission from the Chinese authorities to sell its handsets there. The breakthrough could help the Canadian company continue its wave of financial good news.

RIM co-CEO James L. Balsillie is reported to have made the announcement in a conference call with analysts last week. According to an unnamed manager in RIM's Beijing office, cited in Canada's Globe and Mail on Wednesday, RIM received approval from the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry in June.

The manager also told the paper that the first handset to go on sale in China will be the BlackBerry 8700g, which will sell for the equivalent of $700 by the end of August.

Good News All Over

Nearly 5,000 orders, largely from business users working for foreign companies in China, already have been received for the 8700g, the manager reported, indicating that RIM is investigating the possibility of setting up manufacturing there. There are an estimated 500 million cell phone users in China.

The opening of this huge new market continues RIM's streak of positive news. Last week, RIM reported a 16.3 percent increase in revenue to $1.082 billion for the first quarter of fiscal 2008, compared to the previous quarter. This was a whopping 76.5 percent jump over the same quarter last year and, according to Balsillie, was RIM's "first billion-dollar quarter." About 1.2 million new subscribers were added in the quarter.

The company's financial news came out the day before Apple's much-publicized iPhone was released. But the iPhone is helping RIM, Balsillie has said, because it "drove attention" to handsets with multiple functions.

There have been reports that AT&T, Apple's carrier in the U.S. for the iPhone, has been suggesting the BlackBerry Curve as an alternative choice when the iPhone sells out. AT&T, the exclusive provider of the Curve, has denied the reports.

RIM on a Roll

The approval for RIM to sell in China has been a "long time coming," said IDC analyst Sean Ryan. It probably took so long, he stated, "because it's China" and the government oversight makes it a challenging market.

"Any time you're dealing with data transfer over proprietary lines," as with the BlackBerry, Ryan noted, it is likely going to raise concerns in a controlling government such as China's.

But RIM is "very much on a roll," he said. "They have expanded their portfolio of devices, and continue to expand their pipeline" as well as their markets, he said, while largely remaining focused on the business user.

He noted that employees of foreign companies in China likely will be the key target there, at least initially. "Just think about trying to input Chinese characters into a Qwerty keyboard," he suggested, adding that some other smartphones there use handwriting recognition to accomplish that task.

By Barry Levine