October 6, 2008

BlackBerry Pearl Flip to be Availablein Spain From Telefonica This Fall

Telefonica to offer the first BlackBerry flip phone

Madrid, Spain and Waterloo, ON - Telefónica and Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today introduced the BlackBerry® Pearl™ Flip 8220, the first BlackBerry smartphone to come in the popular flip form factor.

The new BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 provides flip phone fans with all the power of a BlackBerry smartphone in a fun and familiar design. One quick flip of the handset opens up a world of possibilities with the industry’s leading mobile messaging solution and a wide range of impressive Internet and multimedia capabilities, all in one powerful yet approachable smartphone.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone features two high-resolution, light-sensing color displays - an external LCD makes it easy to preview incoming emails, text messages and phone calls without opening the handset, while the large, 240 x 320 internal LCD displays messages, videos and web pages with impressive detail and contrast. It comes packed with an abundance of powerful features including built-in Wi-Fi® (802.11 b/g), extending wireless email and data coverage over home Wi-Fi networks, enterprise wireless deployments and Wi-Fi hotspots.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone delivers exceptional voice quality and includes many premium phone features, including Speaker Independent Voice Recognition (SIVR) for Voice Activated Dialing (VAD), support for mp3 ring tones, smart dialing, conference calling, speed dialing, call forwarding, voicemail attachment playback and enhanced background noise cancellation.  It also features a speakerphone and Bluetooth® 2.0 for use with hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits and other Bluetooth peripherals such as a GPS receiver. The removable/rechargeable 900 mAhr battery provides four hours of talk time and over 14 days of standby time.

Featuring a large SureType® QWERTY keyboard that makes typing messages and dialing numbers fast and easy, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip, like all BlackBerry smartphones, provides integrated access to the industry leading BlackBerry wireless services.  Users are able to easily access up to 10 supported personal and work email accounts, send and receive text and instant messages, and connect on popular social networking sites with friends, family and co-workers. The DataViz® Documents to Go® software suite is also preloaded, allowing users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the handset.

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone comes with a 2 megapixel camera with flash, zoom and video recording* to capture memories while on the move, and includes BlackBerry Maps to deliver maps and step-by-step driving directions quickly and easily.  With an advanced media player for displaying pictures, listening to music and watching videos, the BlackBerry Pearl Flip is the perfect on-the-go entertainment center.  Videos play smoothly on the large internal display, playlists can be managed directly on the handset and there’s an equalizer with 11 preset filters – including "Lounge", "Jazz" and "Hip Hop" – for customizing audio ranges when using wired headphones or external speakers.  The BlackBerry Pearl Flip works with the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application that makes it easy to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone** and it also features a conveniently accessible microSD/SDHC memory card slot that supports up to 16GB for plenty of storage.  High Speed USB 2.0 support allows files to be quickly transferred between a desktop computer and the smartphone and the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software includes Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry® to help users easily manage their music and video files. Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE is also included for creating photo albums and editing pictures on their computer.  

The BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220 smartphone is expected to be available from Telefónica this fall and is supported on BlackBerry® Internet Service (for individuals and smaller businesses), BlackBerry® Unite! (for families and small offices), BlackBerry® Professional Software (for small and medium-sized businesses) and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server (for corporate users).

For more information please visit http://www.blackberry.es//blackberrypearl

* Video recording requires a microSD card, which may be sold separately.

** Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.

About Telefónica
Telefónica is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies in terms of market capitalization. Its activities are centered mainly on the fixed and mobile telephony businesses with broadband as the key tool for the development of both.

The company is present in 25 countries and has a customer base of more than 245 million customers worldwide. Telefónica has a strong presence in Spain, Europe, and Latin America, where the company focuses an important part of its growth strategy.

Telefónica is a 100% listed company, with more than 1.5 million direct shareholders. Its share capital currently comprises 4,704,996,485 common shares traded on the Spanish Stock Markets (Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao and Valencia) as well as those of London, Tokyo, New York, Lima, Buenos Aires and São Paulo.

About Research In Motion (RIM)
Research In Motion is a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market. Through the development of integrated hardware, software and services that support multiple wireless network standards, RIM provides platforms and solutions for seamless access to time-sensitive information including email, phone, SMS messaging, Internet and intranet-based applications. RIM technology also enables a broad array of third party developers and manufacturers to enhance their products and services with wireless connectivity to data. RIM’s portfolio of award-winning products, services and embedded technologies are used by thousands of organizations around the world and include the BlackBerry® wireless platform, the RIM Wireless Handheld™ product line, software development tools, radio-modems and software/hardware licensing agreements. Founded in 1984 and based in Waterloo, Ontario, RIM operates offices in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. RIM is listed on the Nasdaq Stock Market (Nasdaq: RIMM) and the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: RIM). For more information, visit www.rim.com or www.blackberry.com.

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