'Afford' Berry

With the BlackBerry 8520, Research In Motion (RIM) wants to change the affordability game. The device, powered by Airtel, costs just Rs 15,990 and support for up to ten e-mail addresses without Web browsing is Rs 299 a month, even for pre-paid users. The full-featured plan, with unlimited data that includes Web browsing, costs Rs 899 (also available on pre-paid).

There are some catches in the plan, however. For instance, users of the basic plan cannot surf the Web at all, but if you get a five megabyte Powerpoint presentation, you can download it. Again, if you Tweet a lot, you can’t use TwitterBerry on this, but an e-mail device with an affordable e-mail plan is a great idea for people who really don’t surf on the go.

As for the device itself, think of it as the old BlackBerry Curve with a new and rather funky ‘Optical Trackpad’ instead of the trackball. The device has a speedier processor than the old Curve and runs the new BlackBerry operating system like the Bold and the Curve 8900. It might not be half as good-looking as the Curve 8900, but you know what? Airtel and RIM have packaged a pretty good offer and this might help RIM hit the big time in India.