Telstra the first to market with BlackBerry Bold 2

Telstra will be the first Australian carrier to sell the much-anticipated BlackBerry Bold 9700.

The enterprise and business-focused handset is the successor to the original BlackBerry Bold 9000, which analysts attributed much of vendor Research in Motion’s (RIM) smartphone success to. ARN understands units have been shipped to Telstra dealers nationwide and will be made available to customers from November 24.

The phone will be available on an $85 per month plan over 24-months.

Rival merged carriers, 3 and Vodafone, are set to release the handset on December 2.

3 will be offering the handset on a $79 per month plan to business and consumer users.

While Optus has already launched a website selling the Bold 9700, a spokesperson said this was for collecting pre-orders and that the handset would not be released until early December.

The launch of the new BlackBerry Bold 2 comes just as analysts report sales of its predecessor begin to wane under the accelerating popularity of the iPhone.

“As [RIM] release more devices, they’ll certainly come back to that higher growth they’ve become accustomed to,” IDC telecommunications analyst, Mark Novosel, said at the time.