RIM Introduces the New BlackBerry Curve 8520 to Customers in Latin America and the Caribbean

Approachable New Smartphone Offers Email, Messaging, Social Networking, Music and Entertainment for People on the Go

Waterloo, ON - Research In Motion (RIM) (Nasdaq: RIMM; TSX: RIM) today announced plans to launch the new BlackBerry® Curve™ 8520 smartphone in various countries across Latin America and the Caribbean, including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Peru and Venezuela. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 – a new addition to the BlackBerry Curve series - is an incredibly approachable smartphone with plenty of easy-to-use communications and multimedia features to keep you connected and entertained on the go. It is expected to be available starting in early September, with specific dates varying from country to country.

For people who like to be connected, the slim new BlackBerry Curve 8520 provides easy mobile access to email, messaging (IM, SMS, MMS) and popular social networking sites (including Facebook® and MySpace) and features a highly tactile full-QWERTY keyboard for comfortable, accurate typing. It also features rich multimedia capabilities and easy access to music, games and other mobile entertainment apps.

The BlackBerry Curve 8520 is a world phone and is also Wi-Fi®-enabled, allowing fast Web browsing and extended data coverage. In addition to providing the industry’s leading mobile email and messaging solution, the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone is designed to be efficient and convenient. It introduces an innovative touch-sensitive trackpad, which makes scrolling and selection smooth and easy for a great navigation experience. It is also the first BlackBerry smartphone to feature dedicated media keys, smoothly integrated along the top of the handset, giving customers an easy, convenient way to control their music and videos.

Key features of the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone include:

* Full-QWERTY keyboard and touch-sensitive trackpad for reliable, responsive typing and navigation
* 256MB Flash memory and a 512Mhz next generation processor for enhanced performance
* Premium phone features including voice activated dialing, and Bluetooth (2.0) support for hands-free use with headsets, car kits, stereo headsets and other Bluetooth peripherals
* 2 MP digital camera with zoom and video recording*
* Advanced media player for music, pictures and videos, with dedicated media keys and a 3.5 mm stereo headset jack, plus BlackBerry® Media Sync, which makes it easy to quickly sync music from iTunes® or Windows Media® Player with the smartphone**
* Access to BlackBerry App World™, featuring a broad and growing catalog of third-party mobile applications developed specifically for BlackBerry smartphones***. Categories include games, entertainment, social networking and sharing, news and weather, productivity and much more
* BlackBerry® Internet Service support for access to up to 10 supported email accounts, including most popular ISP email accounts such as Yahoo!®, Windows Live™ Hotmail®, AOL® and Gmail™; and BlackBerry® Enterprise Server support, which provides advanced security and IT administration features for corporate deployments
* Expandable memory via hot swappable microSD/SDHC memory card slot, supporting up to 16 GB cards today and expected to support next generation 32GB cards when available
* Built-in Wi-Fi (802.11 b/g)
* Quad-band world phone: EGDE/GPRS/GSM (850/900/1800/1900 MHz)

* Video recording requires a microSD card, which may be sold separately.

** Certain music files may not be supported, including files that contain digital rights management technologies.
*** Not available in all countries.