Blackberry 1999 Annual Report Download - page 6

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One of the most significant distribution partners for RIM is BellSouth
Wireless Data. Following its launch of Inter@ctive Paging in September
1998, BellSouth has been successful in increasing its subscriber base of
two-way paging customers. BellSouth recently announced a partnership
with PageNet, the largest paging company in the world, through which
PageNet will offer its ten million customers the availability of two-way
paging using the BellSouth network and RIM’s Inter@ctive Pager 950.
RIM will continue to support BellSouth and PageNet’s direct and
indirect sales channels through training, lead generation and co-op
marketing.
RIM will also focus on facilitating and supporting third party
development on the Inter@ctive Pager platform. By making it easy and
attractive to develop applications for the Inter@ctive Pager 950, RIM can
effectively reach a much broader target market for its products. These
platform partners and developers are profiled in more detail on page 9.
American Mobile Satellite Corp. (AMSC), another nationwide
wireless data network provider in the U.S., has launched a two-way
messaging service called eLink™ based on RIM’s Inter@ctive Pager 850
platform. AMSC announced that in addition to its own sales efforts, it
will be distributing the Inter@ctive Pager through significant one-way
paging companies and other resellers, including SkyTel. AMSC and
SkyTel represent significant additional distribution channels for RIM’s
handheld devices.
One of RIM’s main focuses in fiscal 2000 is to roll out BlackBerry
service throughout North America. To support the launch of BlackBerry,
RIM has built a distribution channel comprised of Microsoft Exchange
Value Added Resellers (VARs) who deal directly with Information
Technology (IT) managers responsible for corporate computing buying
decisions. Catalysing demand for BlackBerry by providing trial units
to these corporate users and helping them implement the solution
throughout their enterprises are key strategic focuses. More discussion
on BlackBerry can be found on page 12.
4
Letter to Shareholders (continued)
“A tad bigger than an alphanumeric pager, the BlackBerry
packs a QWERTY keyboard and the hottest transceiver on
the street. Thanks to built-in MS Exchange integration and
triple-DES encryption, your growing in-box can be
accessed from anywhere… Rating: First Class” – Wired, June 1999