As expected, China Telecom has confirmed that they’ll be launching their first BlackBerry this month: the CDMA Storm. The BlackBerry Storm, as many of you know, has a 3.2 megapixel camera, HVGA display, and RIM’s patented SurePress clicking touchscreen. This is the first time SurePress is finding its way into China; it’ll be interesting to see if it flies any better over there than it did here.
This deal has been in the works for at least a couple of months, and though it sometimes feels like progress is really slow in China (presumably because of strict regulations), RIM has been making some pretty steady progress into China. For example, China Mobile and Digital China are offering BlackBerrys and service, but Apple has made its push with the iPhone on China Unicom as well. It’s a stiff, sheltered market with some entrenched local manufacturers, but North American players will soon be competing for Chinese consumers soon enough.
[via RIM]