Optus Reveals Prices for BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Torch 9860
Australia's exclusive BlackBerry carrier, Optus, revealed Monday the pricing for Research in Motion's latest smartphones, the BlackBerry Bold 9900 and Torch 9860.
Both devices will be available to consumers on Sept. 1. The BlackBerry 9860 will have a 3.7-inch touch display, the biggest screen in the BlackBerry line. It will also feature a 1.2 Ghz processor, 768 Mb RAM, 5-megapixel camera, full 720p HD video recording capability, and more than four and a half hours battery life. The device will have no physical keyboard.
RIM's new BlackBerry Bold 9900 will be slimmer, sporting a width of just 10.5mm. It will also feature support for near field communications, built-in GPS, 2.8″ touch display, 1.2 GHz Processor, 768 MB RAM and a full, physical QWERTY keyboard.
The new Bold model will be more expensive and will be available on a number of consumer plans. On an Optus Cap or Timeless plan it will cost $0 on a $79 plan over 24 months. The Torch 9860 will start from $0 on Optus $49 cap over 24 months.
Business customers will have to pay $0 on a $49 Business cap over 24 months for the Torch 9860, with the Bold 9900 available for $0 on the $79 Optus Business Complete or Timeless plans over 24 months.
The new smartphones will be available for pre-order. Optus will have exclusive rights to the devices for 45 days before other Australian carriers can offer the two smartphones.
Optus has also announced that the older BlackBerry Curve 3G 9300 is now available for its pre-paid customers for an outright cost of $249.
"BlackBerry Turbo Cap will get 12 months free BlackBerry Messenger and Web browsing via the BlackBerry browser along with access to social networking apps such as Facebook Chat and Twitter," Optus said.
Optus hasn't said anything about offering the other Research in Motion handsets launched last month including the Torch 9850, Torch 9810 and the Bold 9930.