Wireless e-mail, China, Asia-Pacific: Research in Motion (RIM) is confident that its Blackberry wireless email system will soon be rolled out in China, thanks to its collaboration with China Mobile Ltd.

Some “rustication” will be necessary to work out a timetable for RIM’s entry into the Chinese market. Indeed, no hard-and-fast date has been fixed for the actual launch of the service. First target will be multinational companies and others who already have Blackberry handsets in China. After three to four months of connecting these “few hundred thousand” prospective corporate customers, RIM will turn its attention to the much bigger home-grown professional market.

In terms of equipment, RIM is expected to gain approval for and start selling its handsets, e.g., the 8700 and 7130 models, along with RIM’s actual service, by early autumn.

What can not be doubted is the sheer size of RIM’s target market - even the small percentage of the 400 million users categorised as “upmarket.” RIM does face a challenge in the form of a substantially cheaper Chinese rival to Blackberry, which rejoices (in the minds of Blackberry, at least) as Redberry. This rolled out in April at the hands of China Unicom, and set to be helped the longer Blackberry takes to materialise. Redberry also costs under US$1 per month, plus a few Cents per email.

RIM even plays down the threat of rivals to Blackberry despite the existence of another rival: PushMail, which allows customers use email on an existing phone - and launched on none other than Blackberry’s partner, China Mobile! PushMail will sell for an estimated US$12 per month - one quarter of Blackberry’s estimated US$50 per month.

Since RIM viewed China as a target, three years have gone by. It is not quite the Long March, but one hopes for its own sake that the Blackberry army is not picked off by guerrilla commercial tactics.