New Delhi, Jan. 16: Mahesh Bhupati has it. Do you have it ? a BlackBerry?

After an initial lull, the product is all geared to set the mobile market on fire. That?s the claim by AirTel, the exclusive service provider of BlackBerry in India.

The product, which was launched last October, hasn?t quite received the euphoric response the company had expected. Industry observers said it was a niche market and the concept of being able to do professional work ?anywhere anytime? is yet to catch on in India.

Blackberry was targeted as a product for corporate customers.

However, it is yet to become omnipresent like the mobile phone that companies offer to their employees.

It is also facing intense competition from high-end camera phones with almost similar utilities like email and web surfing.

While the price was not an inhibiting factor for the companies, they are not too eager to taste the Blackberry.

AirTel says it has bagged orders from more than 200 corporate customers since its launch and sold a total of about 3,000-4,000 handhelds. On an average, that is less than 20 Blackberrys in each corporate house.

Coca Cola, Thomson Financials, HSBC Bank, Wipro Technologies Ltd, i2 Technologies, Standard Chartered Bank, Pfizer, ACS, Virtusa, Apollo, Star TV, Colt, Deutsche Bank, Exatt, Gillette, Siemens, Manhattan, Fidelity, Emersen, IQS, Jubliant, Fortis, ICICI OneSource, Hathway, WellSpun, Saint Gobain, O&M, Ingvysya, Cognizant Technology are a few leading customers of BlackBerry.

Another reason for the corporate sector not getting excited about the BlackBerry is the quality of service.

Suresh Kumar, national IT manager of KPMG, said, "It?s a great product since it gives access to email without having to connect to Internet. I can work for extended hours without having to wait for emails in office. However, it cannot be used easily as a phone. The network is bad and the product cannot function if you are in remote areas like Shimla and Manali because the company has yet to sort out the interconnect agreement with the local operator. I am happy with the BlackBerry but not with the service.?

AirTel is now actively examining to penetrate into the high-end individual consumer market and also to repackage the tariff to attract more customers.

Mahesh Bhupati, tennis player and managing director of Globo Media Solutions (I) Private Ltd, a leading promotion agency for sports personalities, said, ?It is a comfortable tool for personal as well as business work and serves the entire spectrum of activity. I can check important mails with it and need not carry my laptop to courts. With a product that is 25 per cent of the size of a laptop and also doubles up as a mobile phone, I am really excited to own it.

?I have used all its features from sending short message services (SMS) to calendar and alarm. In fact, I have seen my friends in the US use Blackberry extensively and was waiting for the service to be launched in India. I am confident that this product will make a revolution among the corporate sector users within the next few years as the mobile phone did in the telecom sector,? Bhupati added.

AirTel offer its customers three internationally successful BlackBerry handset models to choose from ? 7730, 7230 and 6230.

The prices of these handsets vary from Rs 18990 to 32990. The cost of service, depending on the usage and calling pattern, also ranges from Rs 1799 to Rs 2799.

Individual users can buy BlackBerry in any of the following cities ? Calcutta, Delhi, Coimbatore, Ludhiana, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Cochin, Lucknow, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Surat.