By Prince Osuagwu
Etisalat Nigeria is trying hard to push frontiers of the mobile market both in Nigeria, entire Africa and the Middle East. These has led to a lot of cutting edge service provisions cum aesthetic packages and offerings tailored at plugging the youths into the growing mobile culture in the world.

However, it seems as if the company is restless and therefore has been looking for ways to stamp its feet in the highly competitive Nigerian mobile market.  And so, basking from the euphoria of celebrating a successful  two year existence in Nigeria, the company at the weekend, announced partnership with leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market, Research In Motion (RIM), to hand the blackberry working tool to its teeming Nigerian customers.

The BlackBerry solution brings together industry-leading smartphones, software and services to provide powerful and easy-to-use email, phone, calendar, web and multimedia applications, as well as access to thousands of other mobile business and lifestyle applications.

With the announcement, Etisalat customers in Nigeria will now be able to enjoy the enhanced freedom and productivity benefits of using the latest high end BlackBerry smartphones to stay connected to people and information on the go.

CEO of Emitac Mobile Solutions (EMS), RIM’s strategic channel partner, Mr Babar Khan, said that his company’s partnership with Etisalat was landmark adding that,“we are thrilled to embark on a partnership with Etisalat Nigeria, and look forward to working with them to bring truly powerful mobile solutions to the Nigerian market. We are committed to supporting Etisalat Nigeria in introducing the latest BlackBerry products and services and to staying at the forefront of mobile technology.” he said

Also, Mark Guibert, Vice President of Corporate Marketing at RIM added, “RIM is very pleased to be introducing the latest BlackBerry solutions for both businesses and consumers through Etisalat in Nigeria .  BlackBerry smartphones are the top choice for people who want a stylish and easy-to-use smartphone that can help them stay connected, productive and entertained while they are on the move.”

An excited Chief Marketing Officer of Etisalat Nigeria, Mr  Wael Ammar, said that Etisalat was delighted to deliver the latest business and lifestyle enhancing solutions in Nigeria .

“We are excited to be able to introduce the very latest Blackberry smartphones to the Nigerian market. We pride ourselves on our dynamic and innovative products and services and the introduction of Blackberry services so soon after our commercial launch is further evidence of this.

“The new Blackberry service from Etisalat will provide a definite boost to the quality of communication in Nigeria and also further reinforce Etisalat’s pedigree as a superior provider of performance enhancement services for the business and lifestyle needs of our customers.”

At launch, Etisalat says it would offer the latest in Blackberry smartphones, the BlackBerry Curve 8900 and BlackBerry Bold. Both, exceptional smartphones with built-in Wi-Fi support and advanced multimedia capabilities.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone offers business professionals and power users impressive functionality and performance in an intuitive and stylish design. The BlackBerry Bold comes with tri-band support for HSDPA high-speed networks around the world and includes integrated GPS and Wi-Fi, as well as a rich set of multimedia capabilities. Featuring a lustrous black exterior, satin chrome finished frame and stylish leatherette backplate, the BlackBerry Bold is a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration.

The BlackBerry Curve 8900, in addition to a sleek, stylish design, includes a large, vivid display of the highest resolution available on a BlackBerry smartphone, as well as a 512MHz next generation processor for fast and responsive performance.

The handset’s advanced multimedia capabilities include a 3.2-megapixel camera with image stabilization, digital zoom, flash and the ability to record video and play video, a music player, a 3.5mm stereo headset jack and headset, and a hot-swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot with a 256MB card inserted. With support for memory cards up to 16GB, customers can carry, capture and enjoy more of their music, pictures and video anywhere they go.

Etisalat said it would be offering BlackBerry Enterprise Server for corporate customers and BlackBerry Internet Service for smaller businesses and individual users. BlackBerry Enterprise Server is designed for organisations that manage their own email servers. The BlackBerry Enterprise Server software tightly integrates with IBM Lotus Domino, Microsoft Exchange and Novell GroupWise and uses advanced encryption and IT policy controls to enable secure, push-based wireless access to email and other corporate data.

BlackBerry Internet Service is designed for smaller businesses and individuals. It allows customers to access up to 10 supported corporate and personal email accounts,including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo! Mail and Google Mail, from a single device.