Personalised BlackBerry PIN numbers could soon rival car number plates as the must-have digits for the status-conscious
A new, specially designed BlackBerry expected to cost around $2000 is to go on sale in the UAE next year.
The country will be come the first market in the world to receive the P'9981 - a collaboration between BlackBerry-maker Research in Motion (RIM) and luxury accessory firm Porsche Design.
And according to executives from both firms at the launch of the new polished steel smartphone in Dubai yesterday, personalised BlackBerry PIN numbers could soon rival car number plates as the must-have digits for the status-conscious.
For the first time - Thorsten Heins, RIM's chief operating officer for product and sales revealed - the firm has given a unique PIN to a product, and the users of the new smartphone will be identifiable from the '2AA' prefix at the start of their PIN.
But even those who won't be shelling out for the new luxury handset are still looking to find a way to make their regular BlackBerry model stand out, according to RIM's managing director for the Middle East Sandeep Saihgal.
In fact, in a country where some think nothing of dropping large sums on a personalised number plate for their car, there is a growing demand for personalised PINs, he said.
"You know what happens with car registrations, and we have seen that with PINs as well - some retail shops have said that people are actually ready to pay a premium on certain PIN numberswhich are unique and differentiated."
Some shops are now displaying the PINs of their BlackBerrys in a bid to entice customers, he said.
Heins, visiting from overseas, said that he didn't know about the craze for personalised PINs until he spoke to some of RIM's Dubai partners yesterday,
"As I learned this morning, this is specifically important to Dubai, where the high degree of personalisation of any PIN is really important to the end user," he said.
The new P'9981 goes on sale in the UAE early next year, before later being rolled out in markets including Europe and the US.
"The unit will be sitting in the luxury segment, but it will have its own position, so we are not trying to copy anyone. You could imagine this to be around $2000, it has not been entirely set yet," said Heins.
The announcement of the new high-end BlackBerry comes less than 10 days after 7DAYS reported that local tech enthusiasts were shelling out $2000 for an unofficially imported iPhone 4S.
© 7Days 2011
