Markets, Technology, Blackberry, Email, China, Asia-Pacific: Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry, has finally established itself in the Chinese market. A deal with Alcatel Lucent means the latter will be RIM's distributor in China.

It is expected that the RIM 8700 email device will be on sale later this year, after a difficult eight-year-long process towards bringing BlackBerry into China. There can be no doubting China's importance to BlackBerry, what with her 500 million mobile users. Starting in 1999, RIM had run into difficulty after difficulty in China. Local regulation issues prevented RIM selling its product even after announcing this intention back in 2002.

The key approval needed was that of the Chinese Ministry of Information Industry which was only granted last year. Local companies attempted to fill the gap in the market before RIM gained permission. Most audacious of them all must have been that by China Unicom, which brought out a similar product last year - and named it RedBerry.

• more info: www.rim.com