Popular BlackBerry Enters China's Mobile Phone Market

Beijing, China (AHN)-Research In Motion (RIM) is now Canada's most valuable company following announcements that the BlackBerry maker will finally enter China, the world's largest mobile phone market, later this year.

RIM took the top spot thanks to a huge run up in its share price Tuesday, followed by the news it had reached an agreement with Alcatel-Lucent for selling its Blackberry wireless device in China. So far this year, RIM's shares have risen by almost 150 percent on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

It was a circuitous route to the Chinese market for the push e-mail device that allows users to access their e-mail on their wireless devices in real time.

It started in May 2006 when BlackBerry manufacturer Research In Motion (RIM) partnered with China Mobile Communications Corp., the country's largest mobile operator, to bring in the service.

But authorities scheduled the BlackBerry sale in China for early 2007. Even then, RIM was required to tap telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent SA in a distribution agreement that in turn involved Chinese handset maker TCL Communications Holdings Co. Ltd., PC World reports.

China has more than 500 million mobile subscribers, and this could boost further RIM's 10.5-million subscriber mark.

RIM expects revenue for the third quarter to reach $1.6 billion to $1.67 billion. About 1.65 million new subscriber accounts are expected during the period.

RIM had market capitalization of 68.56 billion Canadian dollars ($68.7 billion) at the Toronto stock market Wednesday morning, surpassing long-time front-runner Royal Bank of Canada.