Yet another RedBerry post

Have we mentioned China Unicom is about to launch a pushmail service dubbed the “RedBerry”? Oh yeah, we have, here, here and here. This Shanghaiist went so far as calling it a worthy challenger to the BlackBerry. But, now we aren’t so sure. Sage Brennan from Pacific Epoch uncovered this interesting, albeit somewhat disturbing tidbit:

Facio Software, the outfit behind China Unicom's new RedBerry "Uni-Pushmail" service, is selling the new handset and service through its website. You may notice that the site cleverly lists a guy's mobile phone number for potential buyers (13811736704)...

I wonder how many of RIM's in-house lawyers have crank-called "Leo" in preparation for their inevitable multimillion-dollar lawsuit?

Never mind the lawsuit, we’re still hung up on the “one guy with a cell phone number” thing. Does that sound just a bit sketchy to anyone else? Coupled with the “Ask us for the latest quote” line at the bottom of the website, the whole operation just stinks of a used-car dealership -- excuse us, Pre-Owned. At this point, the thought of having Facio handling our most personal email correspondence is more than a little troubling, especially when the alternative is an established player such as the BlackBerry. We are seriously reconsidering our options.

P.S. We did call Leo, who we must admit was very pleasant to talk to, especially considering it was his day off. But, he didn’t seem to know his stuff, or at least gave us information which directly contradicted what had been posted on Facio’s website. This is what Leo said:

RedBerry isn’t limited to just China Unicom subscribers, China Mobile customers can download the email client from Facio and get access to RedBerry also.

Facio’s product page, on the other hand, tells us this:

Service is offered through China Unicom’s high-speed CDMA network.

Either way, we may never find out. Hello, BlackBerry!