First BlackBerry Smartphone to Incorporate Camera, MP3, Video Player and Expandable Memory Slot

Digicel and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) have announced that the BlackBerry® Pearl™, one of the smallest and lightest smartphones in the world is now available to Digicel customers in 12 of its 22 markets.

The BlackBerry Pearl, developed and manufactured by RIM, is an amazingly small, light and stylish phone. It delivers the full experience of the BlackBerry solution along with -- for the first time -- powerful media features including a digital camera, MP3 and video player, and comes with an expandable memory slot (microSD) for additional storage.  .

Digicel is ensuring the BlackBerry Pearl is available extensively across the Caribbean region by initially offering it to customers in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, The Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, St Kitts & Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago as well as Bermuda, with plans in place to expand the offering across all of its 22 markets.

According to Marketing Director for Digicel Group, Mr. Ben Atherton, “We are always looking at ways to offer handsets that allow customers to benefit fully from cutting-edge wireless technology so Digicel is proud to add the BlackBerry Pearl to our suite of offerings. Multi-tasking has never been this easy. The BlackBerry Pearl is loaded with features and offers everything you’d expect from a smartphone as well as the wireless advantages you only get from the BlackBerry solution,” he said.

According to Mark Guibert, Vice-President, Corporate Marketing at Research In Motion,

“The BlackBerry Pearl delivers the full BlackBerry experience and incorporates best–in-class technology to deliver premium voice and data features along with convenient multi-media capabilities. We are very pleased to be working with Digicel to introduce this breakthrough smartphone to their customers in the Caribbean”.

The BlackBerry Pearl also includes advanced call management features such as smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing and call forwarding.  Premium phone features include Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), speakerphone and Bluetooth® support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits and Bluetooth peripherals.   Other key features include a large, vivid display and incredibly intuitive navigation.

The BlackBerry Pearl is available with two service plans offered by Digicel: 

• BlackBerry® Internet Service - allows users to access to up to 10 supported personal and corporate email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts

• BlackBerry® Enterprise Server - tightly integrates with Microsoft® Exchange, IBM® Lotus® Domino® and Novell® GroupWise® environments and features a new set of IT policy controls that allows IT departments to manage camera and expansion memory usage