China approves BlackBerry sales

The Chinese Ministry of Information Industry has just dropped word that it has approved the sale of BlackBerry devices in China, opening up a huge opportunity for sales. This signals the end of an 8-year old battle as RIM has already registered the BlackBerry trademark in China back in 1999, waiting and biding its time to bring in BlackBerry devices since then. So far, RIM has received up to 5,000 advance orders for the BlackBerry 8700g that will retail for approximately $700 there when released this August. That’s pretty steep considering the low per capita income of native Chinese, but I guess there is a growing middle class in China that will help boost sales figures.