"Overheating" BlackBerry Bold pulled from sale

 

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By Barry Collins and Reuters

Posted on 27 Feb 2009 at 09:19

The BlackBerry Bold has been pulled from sale in Japan amid reports the smartphone is overheating.

Japan's biggest mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMO, has halted sales of the device because the phone can overheat while the battery is being recharged.

DoCoMo claims it has sold about 4,000 units of the high-end Bold, and about 30 users have complained the phone's keyboard had overheated.

The operator says that it has received no reports of users getting burned or of phones catching fire.

BlackBerry maker RIM claims the devices are not dangerous. "NTT DoCoMo and Research In Motion (RIM) are investigating reports that a small number of BlackBerry Bold devices sold in Japan were at times reaching warmer than usual device temperatures during charging," the company claims in a statement.

"While the temperatures appear to have remained within the safety range of regulatory standards, RIM and NTT DoCoMo are voluntarily suspending sales of this specific model in Japan pending further examination.

"This issue appears to be specifically limited to the BlackBerry Bold devices sold in Japan since last week and sales of BlackBerry Bold devices in other countries are unaffected by this matter.

"Although RIM's analysis of the devices in question has allowed it to rule out a battery problem, the root cause remains under investigation."

Click here to read our review of the BlackBerry Bold