P9981

For those of you in China that fancy a slice of luxury BlackBerry you ail be pleased to know that the Porsche Design BlackBerry P'9981 is now available to buy. The rather expensive device may not be for everyone, but if you can afford it and want to stand out from the crowd you can pick up the P'9981 from Porsche Design stores as well as authorised BlackBerry retailers.

Adapted for Chinese customers, the new Porsche Design P'9981 comes with support for simplified Chinese and common Chinese input methods.

With BlackBerry 10 so close now I must be honest and say that you may be better off saving your money for that. However, if you can afford the P'9981 you probably have enough money to get both. The luxury device certainly attracts attention from other BlackBerry users - I know from first hand experience. 

You can catch the full press release below:

Stuttgart, Germany and Beijing, China. Porsche Design and Research In Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today launched the elite Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone from BlackBerry® in China. The luxurious new smartphone will be available from Porsche Design stores as well as BlackBerry authorized retailers in December.

Instantly identifiable as a Porsche Design product, the unique Porsche Design P'9981 smartphone from BlackBerry is made of exclusive materials that include a forged stainless steel frame, hand-wrapped leather back cover, sculpted QWERTY keyboard, and a crystal clear touch display. This customized Porsche Design P'9981 comes with an exclusive Porsche Design UI. It also includes premium, exclusive PINs that help easily identify another P'9981 smartphone customer.

Adapted for Chinese customers, the new Porsche Design P'9981 comes with support for simplified Chinese and common Chinese input methods. Local premium after-sales service will also be offered to customers who purchase the smartphone through authorized retailers in China.

"Since 1972 Porsche Design has presented milestone products with iconic style, and the P'9981 smartphone from BlackBerry will be our next landmark," said Dr. Juergen Gessler, CEO Porsche Design Group. "The pure and distinctive design, coupled with authentic materials and an emphasis on the manufacturing process, perfectly match our philosophy and complement the Porsche Design product assortment."

"As one of the world's largest smartphone markets, we are committed to bringing our finest smartphone products to China," said Urpo Karjalainen, Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific at Research In Motion. "The new Porsche Design P'9981 from BlackBerry offers the timeless style of Porsche Design and the unmatched mobile experience provided by BlackBerry, and with the continuously increasing demand for luxury items and the growing popularity for smartphones in China, we believe that the new smartphone will be very desirable for customers."

Powerful hardware and software
The Porsche Design P'9981 is built on a performance driven platform that features a 1.2 GHz processor, HD video recording, 24-bit high resolution graphics, and advanced sensors enabling new augmented reality applications. It comes with 8GB of on-board memory, expandable up to 40GB with a micro SD card.

The new Porsche Design P'9981 is preloaded with the latest BlackBerry® 7.1 OS, delivering best-in-class voice, email, messaging and social functionalities. It includes a next generation BlackBerry® browser with a fast, fluid web browsing experience that is among the best in the industry. With built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communications), the Porsche Design P'9981 enables many new and exciting capabilities. It also features Liquid GraphicsTM technology, which delivers a highly responsive touch experience with incredibly fast and smooth graphics.

For more information please visit www.blackberry.com/cn.

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