Sony Ericsson and Research In Motion (RIM) today announced out-of-the-box availability of BlackBerry Connect software v4.0 on the Sony Ericsson P1i in various countries in the Asia Pacific1 region, including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand.

BlackBerry Connect will be pre-loaded on the Sony Ericsson P1i and supports push-based wireless email services, including attachment viewing and wireless email synchronization, in conjunction with both BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Internet Service.

Additional features supported through BlackBerry Enterprise Server and BlackBerry Connect v4.0 include:

• Enhanced attachment handling capabilities, enabling users to view images, footnotes and tracked changes;
• Remote look-up of corporate email address directory;
• Triple DES or AES wireless encryption;
• Internet and corporate intranet access via the BlackBerry® Mobile Data System (MDS);
• Wireless device provisioning to allow devices to be activated wirelessly;
• Remote control of email settings to allow users to wirelessly configure out-of-office replies, email filters, and auto-signatures directly from their device; and
• Wireless IT policy enforcement and commands.

BlackBerry Connect will be pre-loaded on new P1i smartphones and existing Sony Ericsson P1i users can download the BlackBerry Connect v4.0 software from the Sony Ericsson website at www.sonyericsson.com.