BlackBerry Bold 9900 out on MTN

MTN and Research In Motion (RIM) have announced the availability of the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone for MTN customers in South Africa.

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone is a truly outstanding smartphone that features both amazing performance and a stunning design. Built on a new, performance-driven platform powered by the new BlackBerry 7 operating system, it is also the thinnest BlackBerry smartphone yet at only 10.5mm.

Rui Brites, Director, African Product Management at RIM, said: ‚We’re pleased to work with MTN to bring the new BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone to customers in South Africa. The new BlackBerry Bold combines outstanding mobile communications and multimedia performance with the industry’s bestkeyboard and a brilliant touch display.‚

Mike Fairon, General Manager for Product, Services and Innovation at MTN, said: ‚We’re excited to bring the next-generation BlackBerry smartphone experience to our customers in South Africa. With its blazingly quick performance, enhanced browsing and elegant styling, this is a perfect smartphone for both consumers and busy professionals on the move.‚

Next generation BlackBerry browser

The BlackBerry 7 operating system on the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone introduces a next generation BlackBerry browser with a significantly faster, more fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. Combining the dramatically improved performance of the advanced WebKit browser engine together with powerful hardware enhancements, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 smartphone delivers browsing results that are up to 40% faster than BlackBerry 6 based smartphones and up to 100% faster than BlackBerry 5 based smartphones*. Additional enhancements to the next generation BlackBerry browser have also optimised zooming and panning for smoother web navigation and streamlined HTML5 performance for incredible gaming and video experiences.

Liquid Graphics

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 features Liquid Graphics technology, combining a dedicated high-performance graphics processor with a blazingly fast CPU and stunning high resolution display to deliver a highly responsive touch interface with incredibly fast and smooth graphics. In addition, the smartphone features a brilliant display, with an eye-popping 287 dpi, that delivers crisp, stunning visuals.

Increased productivity

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 includes a number of pre-loaded applications for increased productivity and collaboration right out of the box. The Premium version of Documents To Go is now included free of charge, offering users powerful document editing features as well as a native PDF document viewer. In addition, BlackBerry Balance (announced May 2, 2011) is also included, allowing users to enjoy the full BlackBerry smartphone experience for both work and personal purposes without compromising the IT department’s need for advanced security and IT controls.

Improved social experiences

The BlackBerry Bold 9900 comes with the newest release of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) which now extends the real time BBM experience to a range of other apps. These ‚BBM connected’ apps can integrate the popular functionality of the BBM service and offer users the ability to interact with their friends from within the app itself. The updated Social Feeds (2.0) app has been extended to capture updates from media, podcasts, and favorites all in one consolidated view. The new Facebook¬Æ for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app introduces features like Facebook chat and BBM integration that makes it easier for users to connect with their Facebook friends in real time.

NFC enabled

The new BlackBerry Bold 9900 is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to include built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), a new technology that is enabling many new and exciting capabilities, including the ability to pair with NFC-enabled accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

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