Asia-Pacific RIM: BlackBerry goes to Japan

RIM is to debut its trademark email device in Japan for the first time after inking a deal with the country's largest carrier, NTT DoCoMo.

NTT DoCoMo will launch the devices from this autumn, RIM said, although the handset maker is yet to provide details of which models will be available.

While users can receive messages in Japan, they will have to respond in English as the device will only sport a Qwerty keyboard.

From a hardware perspective, RIM is going to look large and clunky - it's flying in the face of handset design and it's difficult for non-Japanese vendors to do well in that market.

The Japanese BlackBerrys will run on the W-CDMA variant of 3G as well as GSM and GPRS.

While Japan is often regarded as the most advanced market for mobile technology, innovations have typically centred on the consumer segment - leaving the enterprise market still relatively open.

Nick Spencer, research analyst at Canalys, said RIM's enterprise security and management could put it in a good position with large companies but added the handset maker had some major hurdles to overcome first.

He told silicon.com: "The [country's] devices are very design-led - the Japanese love their features but they have to be done in a very consumery way. From a hardware perspective, RIM is going to look large and clunky – it's flying in the face of handset design and it's difficult for non-Japanese vendors to do well in that market."

The launch into Japan represents the second big push for RIM into the Asia-Pacific market. The company recently announced it was to launch in China with local operator China Mobile.