Blackberry to release Bold phone in battle with Apple and Nokia

BLACKBERRY will release the latest version of its email enabled mobile phone later this month in an ongoing technology battle with rivals Apple and Nokia.

The new phone, called the Bold, will go on sale around the middle of this month, although no date has yet been set.

It is expected to be available initially at retailers Carphone Warehouse and T-Mobile.

The Carphone Warehouse said the Bold, like its rival the iPhone 3G, will be free with a contract but will not be available on “pay as you go” deals.

The Blackberry has already proved highly successful with business workers.

The introduction of the Bold comes a month after Apple launched its much-anticipated iPhone 3G.

Research in Motion (RIM), the creator of the Blackberry, described the new phone as “a symbol of accomplishment and aspiration”.

It said the Bold’s added processing power would “make short work of downloading email attachments, streaming video or rendering web pages”.

The Bold phone will allow users to talk on the phone while sending emails and accessing the internet.

It also features a 2-megapixel camera with video recording capability, a gigabyte of memory and a media player for watching movies and managing music collections.