Latitude Wireless has introduced the latest of the BlackBerry smartphones to northern customers. The launch of the BlackBerry Tour was announced last month by Research in Motion (RIM) and is already available in the North.

It’s being offered to Latitude Wireless customers with special introductory pricing, which is currently the lowest price in Canada.

The Tour has a large, bright display with high resolution. Other features include a camera, web browser, media player and built-in GPS.

“The BlackBerry Tour is a powerful new multi-network smartphone that will work anywhere in Canada and around the world,” said Curtis Shaw, Northwestel Vice President, Consumer and Small Business Markets. “It offers state-of-the-art communications and multimedia capabilities, as well as exceptional mobile performance. It’s a terrific new choice for those wishing to switch over from a cell phone or upgrade from their current smartphone.”

The Tour is one of six BlackBerry smartphones available through Latitude Wireless. The phones are enhanced by a wide range of exciting new applications available through RIM’s on-device application store, BlackBerry App World.

These easy-to-use, leading-edge applications make the BlackBerry more useful and entertaining in hundreds of new ways. They’re available throughout Canada, the United States and Europe via BlackBerry App World. Once downloaded onto a BlackBerry, the store gives users the opportunity to pick and choose from approximately 2,000 new applications, many of them free of charge.

“The applications store is an exciting new development for Latitude Wireless BlackBerry users,” added Shaw. “Any northern community in which we’ve introduced our Latitude Wireless cellular and mobile Internet service now has access to the same leading edge BlackBerry applications available in large southern cities. BlackBerry users in small remote communities such as Old Crow and Baker Lake can benefit from the new applications just as easily as those living in huge urban centres such as Toronto and New York City.”

To download the storefront, users may visit mobile.blackberry.com or www.blackberry.com/appworld from the BlackBerry Browser. A BlackBerry App World icon will appear when the store has been downloaded. The applications are organized into categories that include Entertainment, Finance & Banking, Games, Maps & Navigation, News & Weather, Social Networking, Sports & Recreation and Travel.

BlackBerry App World is available for BlackBerry smart phones with a trackball or touchscreen and which run BlackBerry device software 4.2 or higher.

Latitude Wireless service is available in all Yukon communities, in Fort Simpson and Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories and in Arviat, Baker Lake, Cambridge Bay and Rankin Inlet in Nunavut.

Northwestel provides complete telecommunications solutions and entertainment services in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon, northern British Columbia and High Level, Alberta. The company’s operations span nearly 4 million square kilometres of the most remote and rugged areas of Canada.