China Unicom has launched the Redberry, a very similar service to Research in Motion's (RIM) Blackberry.

Research in Motion had been due to launch in China this summer in conjunction with a Chinese partner, probably China Mobile, according to senior management. But the Redberry, which uses software called Uni Pushmail, will compete directly and the manufacturers say that it will be very similar to the popular Western product.

"With the enthusiastic support of China Unicom, Uni PushMail service has gained much momentum in China," Tony Chan, chief executive of Facio Software, which designed the software, told Interfax.

When asked about the looming competition from Blackberry, Tony asserted, " The Redberry is not afraid, neither did David fear Goliath!"

The service allows up to 5,000 text characters per email and a maximum 100 kilobytes in attachments. A standard 5 MB email account costs 60 US cents per month, with four cents for each email delivered. A deluxe account with 50 megabytes in size costs $1.25 a month, while $3.75 a month business account has 200 megabytes of email space.

Push based email is relatively new to China, which is the largest telecommunications market in the world. RIM has expressed high hopes fort its launch in the country but the new announcement will damage its prospects.