BlackBerry makers hope for positive outcome of talks with govt

Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of BlackBerry smart phone, today said the company is bullish about talks with the government of India over its security concerns over the phone and hoped to reach a constructive decision soon.

"Our discussion with the government of India is very constructive. We are bullish about the outcome," RIM India's Managing Director Frenny Bawa told reporters here on the sidelines of the launch of its new smart phone.

"National security is a very important issue. We take India's concern very seriously," she said.

The central government has given an ultimatum to RIM, demanding access to its server for monitoring BlackBerry chats and corporate e-mails. It has issued a notice that if the Canadian company is not ready to abide by the demand, then these services would be banned.

Despite the future of BlackBerry in India remaining a concern, the company today launched its new model -BlackBerry Torch 9800, the first BlackBerry smartphone with the new BlackBerry 6 operating system, with a price tag of Rs 35,000.

The 3G device offers a lot of services but it misses one of the basic 3G facilities - video call - even though it is launched a little ahead of the much-awaited 3G rollout.