Press Release
August 14, 2003
Telstra Introduces BlackBerry Wireless Handheld With Colour Screen and Attachment Viewing
Telstra today unveiled a new BlackBerry 7230 Wireless Handheld™for mobile professionals that features a high-resolution colour screen, email attachment viewing and tri-band support for worldwide international roaming.
Telstra Business and Government Mobile Sales and Solutions Managing Director, Mr Murray Bergin, said the BlackBerry 7230 Wireless Handheld™ still provided the advanced, "always on" email, data and voice services current BlackBerry customers have become accustomed to while also incorporating the additional features.
"The BlackBerry 7230 allows users to stay connected to important information in more places with its advanced international roaming capability while the colour screen and attachment viewing feature make it easier to use for our customers," Mr Bergin said.
"BlackBerry continues to deliver on Telstra's strategy of providing wireless solutions to our business and government customers that improve productivity and reduce costs."
The key features of the Java-based BlackBerry 7230™ developed by Research In Motion® (RIM) include:
- High resolution colour screen (16-bit) supports 65,000 colours.
- Integrated phone with built-in speaker/microphone and optional earpiece for hands-free conversation allowing user to simultaneously access organizer, SMS and email applications.
- Wireless email synchronization and integrated attachment viewing.
- Users can read and forward important email attachments from their BlackBerry Wireless Handheld (including: Microsoft® Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF).
- Tri-band support for international roaming (on 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS networks) enables mobile professionals to use one handheld while travelling between North America, Europe and the Asia Pacific with no need to change their phone number or email addresses.
- Users can send and receive email and SMS messages on the go with the easy-to-use 'thumb-typing' keyboard and navigation trackwheel.
- A wireless extension to existing mailboxes with support for corporate email accounts including Microsoft® Exchange and IBM Lotus® Domino™ email accounts.
- Push-based wireless architecture means that messages are delivered automatically with no need to dial in.
- Both the screen and keyboard are backlit for easy reading and typing during day or night.
"Telstra is striving to deliver the best possible wireless experience for our business and government customers and with the continued evolution of BlackBerry, it has quickly become the device of choice for mobile professionals," Mr Bergin said.
"The feedback we are getting from BlackBerry customers has been extremely positive. Customers are saying that the superior battery life, the automatic delivery of messages and the ability to access corporate Intranets is making BlackBerry an invaluable tool for increasing productivity and efficiency.
"Our direct marketing activities through our salesforce is delivering results, but we have also found customers are approaching us because they have heard about the benefits of BlackBerry through word of mouth."
Since its launch in September last year, BlackBerry has experienced strong growth with many of Australia's largest companies and government organisations including: the Queensland Department of Regional Development and Premier, Transurban; Deutsche Bank, Wesfarmers Insurance Federation, Brown Brothers, Arnold Bloch Liebler, GSA Group, Amcor, CSIRO, Lotteries Commission and Storage-Tek.
A version of the BlackBerry solution designed for individuals and small business customers will also be released later this year.
The BlackBerry and RIM families of related marks, images and symbols are the exclusive properties of Research In Motion Limited. All other brands, products and company names mentioned herein may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.
Editor Note:
Photographs of the BlackBerry 7230 are available from www.blackberry.com/uk/news/products/index.shtml.
