China Telecom and Research In Motion will jointly launch BlackBerry and related services on the Chinese mainland on Sunday, joining the heated smartphone war in the world's No. 1 handset market.

The country's No. 3 mobile carrier will hold a conference to launch BlackBerry, a smartphone with strong e-mail functions, a China Telecom source told Shanghai Daily yesterday.

The new BlackBerry in China features a touch-screen and push mail functions. The monthly fee starts at 189 yuan (US$27.8) for BIS (BlackBerry Internet Services), media reported.

It is RIM's latest move to penetrate the Chinese market, where Nokia and Apple have gained market share and brand awareness, industry insiders said.

"It's most gratifying for RIM, which appears to have successfully made the transition from enterprise-centric applications and can now be considered mainstream," Ovum, a UK-based IT research firm, said in a note.

China Telecom becomes RIM's second partner on the mainland. In 2008, RIM partnered with China Mobile to launch enterprise-used BlackBerry models in China. The models got a lukewarm response from consumers.

Apple cooperated with China Unicom to launch iPhone in the country in October and the country's No. 2 carrier cut the iPhone fee recently to gain market share.

Lenovo, China's biggest PC vendor, launched a smartphone last month to tap into the mobile Internet market.

Among smartphone platforms globally, the iPhone's operating system had the most support from developers, with 81 percent. It was followed by BlackBerry's 74 percent and Windows phone's 66 percent, according to Ovum.