Several people fainted at the launch the new Blackberry Bold 9790 smartphone

RIM chose Jakarta, Indonesia as the place to launch the new Blackberry Bold 9790 smartphone. Hoards of people turned up for the launch event. The first 1000 people that purchased a Bold 9790 were supposed to receive a 50% discount on their purchase. The hoards of people running to get a Blackberry resulted in “tens of people” being injured. Some of those people were unconscious at the scene. Police and ambulances descended on the mall to help the injured and sort the mess out.

Thousands of Indonesians jammed into a glitzy shopping mall Friday to get hold of the first BlackBerry Bold 9790s being sold worldwide. With a 50 percent discount on the $540 phone for the first 1,000 buyers, lines started forming in front of Pacific Place mall on Thursday night. Several people fainted in the crush. With 6 million users, BlackBerry dominates the smartphone market. Dozens of people suffered minor injuries as many hundreds of impatient BlackBerry fans broke through a barricade to get their hands on the latest smartphone during a discount promotion in a Jakarta mall on Friday.

As the crowd swelling to well in excess of a thousand people — a number of whom had been queuing since the previous day — rumors began circulating on Friday morning that the BlackBerry Bellagio, also known as a BlackBerry Bold 9790, had sold out during the event at Pacific Place mall in South Jakarta. This and impatience and frustration caused the crowd to surge forward through a protective barrier, with reports saying that as many as 90 people needing treatment for a range of minor injuries, from losing consciousness to broken bones. Sandy, a Blackberry staff member, said the queue had begun forming from 4 p.m. the previous day. “The rules have changed,” said Karim, who had been queuing since early Friday morning.

“Everyone, please be patient and stand in line,” a police officer yelled through a megaphone. Please remember your own safety.”--Arifin, a security guard with a rottweiler police dog, said the situation remained tense. The South Jakarta Police stopped a BlackBerry promotion event after 90 customers either fainted or were injured as they scrambled to get their hands on half-price BlackBerry Bellagio smartphones.--“For security and safety reasons, we finally halted it [the promotion] until further notice in newspapers,” South Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Imam Sugianto said Friday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.