Research In Motion (RIM), manufacturers of BlackBerry smartphones, gave a short response when I asked them about their official stand on the proliferation of gray market BlackBerry phones in the market. In an e-mail through their local PR agency, RIM said that:

“We strongly encourage our customers to buy BlackBerry smartphones from RIM’s official partners to be assured of quality, network compatibility, and after-sales service support.”

As most of you know, there are a lot of open line and much cheaper BlackBerry smartphones out there. Importers are actually getting their units mostly from the US and then having it “opened lined” here so that the phone can function using local carriers like SMART, Globe, and Sun Cellular. This is why most gray market BlackBerry’s have the logos of AT&T or Verizon.

I haven’t heard of any problem yet with regards to the signal quality with gray market products but I have heard of complaints from several users about the service warranty. Most vendors in Greenhills who sell them at low prices (especially in the tiangge area) usually disappear after a month’s time so you can’t really go there to have it fixed/replaced.

Read their complete response after the break.

“We strongly encourage our customers to buy BlackBerry smartphones from RIM’s official partners to be assured of quality, network compatibility, and after-sales service support.

In the Philippines, besides longtime telco partners Globe and Smart, RIM has recently tied up with Sun Cellular.

There are now more choices than ever.

Our relationships with our carrier partners have been instrumental in building the BlackBerry brand in the Philippines.

When selecting their network operator, consumers now also have the choice of BlackBerry services to choose from.

While we continue to build relationships with our carrier partners, we will keep evaluating local market opportunities and consumer needs to offer solutions and services to consumers in the Philippines.

The Philippines is one of the fastest growing telecom markets with over 75 million cell phone subscribers.

The Philippines is an important market and RIM is poised to leverage its presence in the region. Consumers in the Philippines love to stay connected with family and friends at all times and we have solutions like BlackBerry Messenger or the other social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter which are gaining popularity on the BlackBerry platform.

RIM is very pleased by the positive reaction to BlackBerry solutions and services in the Philippines and will continue investing in the Philippines to support RIM’s customers and partners.

RIM remains very excited about the future of the smartphone market in the country.”

Thanks again to Virtusio for coordinating with me on this. You guys rock.