Blackberry in China: Just a matter of when

Shanghaiist was just talking with some friends about the possibility of the Blackberry being introduced into the China market. And now it looks like that indeed is going to happen. This is good news, we think. Although we must admit to being a little scared that such a device would signal the end to all normal human interaction for us -- working form home, that's already quite limited. We have a friend who already uses a Blackberry in China -- it's a company device that uses roaming service and costs something like £35 a month -- and he hates it. But he's a banker. And we probably would hate the thing too if all we received were emails about banking. We'll probably buy a Blackberry when they make their China debut, and all of you will be left to wonder: Did Shanghaiist post this story from the can?

The Shanghai Daily story says the Blackberry is currently being tested in Beijing and a launch will happen shortly after the testing is completed (no one said when that will be). Blackberry service is already available in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Heading our way sooner is PushMail, which allows users to send and receive emails on existing mobile phones. (Can't we already do that?) The service will cost 100 kuai a month and will debut next month.

UPDATE: All of this is probably false.