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SK Telecom and RIM Launch the BlackBerry Torch

Seoul, South Korea, 13 February, 2011

• First BlackBerry Smartphone Combining a Keyboard and Full Touch Screen Experience
  
  
• Now Available for Pre-order in Stylish Charcoal, Red and White Colors; Powered by push-based technology and featuring the new BlackBerry 6 Operating System

SK Telecom and Research In Motion (RIM) (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today launched the new BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone for customers in Korea. The BlackBerry Torch is the first BlackBerry® smartphone to feature the exciting combination of a QWERTY keyboard with a full touch screen experience. Powered by push-based technology and featuring the new BlackBerry® 6 operating system, BlackBerry Torch is packed with features and supports a wide range of powerful applications and services to help users stay connected with the people and information that matter most throughout their day.

With BlackBerry 6, the BlackBerry Torch smartphone offers a redesigned interface that seamlessly works with the touch screen and trackpad. BlackBerry 6 includes expanded messaging capabilities with intuitive features to simplify the management of social networking and RSS feeds (Social Feeds), and provides integrated access to BBM™ (BlackBerry® Messenger), Facebook®, Twitter™ and various messaging applications available on the smartphone.

In addition, BlackBerry 6 comes with a new universal search feature, which allows users to easily search through email, messages, contacts, music, videos and more, as well as extend searches to the Internet or to discover applications on BlackBerry App World™. Users can simply start typing from the Home Screen to search for the information they want.

“We are delighted to launch the BlackBerry Torch in Korea, the first BlackBerry smartphone that comes with both a touch screen and a slide-out keyboard,” said Jeong-Seob Cho, Senior Vice President, Smart Device Office, SK Telecom. “The BlackBerry Torch packs a full suite of smartphone features into a refined design, bringing the smartphone experience to a new level for customers. We are pleased to offer a choice of BlackBerry smartphone products to our customers.”

“With advanced communications and multimedia capabilities as well as an easy-to-use BlackBerry keyboard and a full touch-screen experience, the new BlackBerry Torch smartphone is ideal for both business professionals and socially connected consumers,” said Norm Lo, Vice President of Asia Pacific, Research In Motion. “We are very excited to bring the BlackBerry Torch to customers in Korea.”

Other key features of the BlackBerry Torch with BlackBerry 6 include:

• Support of high-speed 3G (UMTS/HSDPA) networks around the world
  
  
• Latest generation in Wi-Fi® (b/g/n) connectivity
  
  
• Built-in GPS for location-based applications and geo-tagging
  
  
• A new and rich WebKit-based browser that renders HTML web pages (as well as HTML email), and supports tabbed browsing, pinch to zoom and an auto-wrap zoom feature
  
  
• 5 MP camera with continuous auto focus, flash, image stabilization, scene modes and zoom, and video recording
  
  
• Media player for videos, pictures and music, and a dedicated YouTube app
  
  
• Wi-Fi Music Sync for access to iTunes® or Windows Media® Player music libraries from the BlackBerry smartphone
  
  
• A combined 8 GB of media storage out-of-the-box and includes a microSD/SDHD memory card slot that can bring the total storage memory to 36 GB
  

Pricing and Availability
The new BlackBerry Torch, which will be available in stylish charcoal, red and white colors, can now be pre-ordered from SK Telecom with availability expected by the end of February. The first 1,000 customers who purchase the BlackBerry Torch from SK Telecom will receive a limited edition BlackBerry Torch battery door, a BlackBerry Leather Pocket and a screen protector.

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SK Telecom and RIM Introduce the First Touch-Screen BlackBerry Smartphone in South Korea

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