Getting the latest technical edge just became a little more affordable after it was announced the local price for the popular Blackberry was dropping by $80.

Last month, at a special customer forum hosted by AT&T Wireless (Bermuda) and attended by a representative from RIM ? the Canada-based manufacturer of the Blackberry ? customers were given the good news on the price drop as well as being able to give the company feedback on how they would like to see the top-selling data device?s service and features evolve.

AT&T Wireless Bermuda general manager Jonathan Koshar said the price has been dropped to $499 ? a significant savings over the $575 price tag Blackberries came to the local market with, about a year ago.

?The Blackberry has been out (in Bermuda) for about one year, and we wanted to find out what was going well, what could be going better; what can we do to be better for our customers,? he said of the decision to host the customer event last week. Mr. Koshar said that he could not give exact figures on the number of users for competitive reasons, but had reason to believe that Bermuda has the ?highest penetration? of data device users the world over.

He added that there was also a high concentration ? about 60 percent of the population ? of mobile phone users locally.

Mr. Koshar pointed out that while cellular phone use is already well established with locals, data devices like the Blackberry ? which combine the features of a mobile phone with access to e-mail, Internet, and with several including a miniature (referred to as QUERTY) keyboard ? were seeing a strong surge in popularity.

Some critics complain that the shape of the data devices ? with models being wider than mobile phones at about the width of the hand ? is awkward, especially when making telephone calls, but Mr. Koshar said this has not stopped anyone from using them.

?I?ve had none back because of the shape,? he said. Customers attending the forum also got to hear about new and pending features for the Blackberry, including advances that allow users to sync with their desktop PCs remotely and without the cradle attachment that used to have to be used.

AT&T Wireless recently was the subject of a $41 million buy-out deal with mobile communications giant Cingular Wireless. Mr. Koshar said the deal would mean little change for local customers ? except for the positive of much greater roaming activity (with agreements already in 150 countries) when they travel abroad and greater negotiating power (46 million customers in the US alone) to increase roaming agreements in further parts of the globe.