Research In Motion Ltd (BBRY): Did It Secretly Reach a Deal With The Chinese Government For $1 Billion?

NOTE: There is an update to this article. It can be seen here.

Research in Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) – also known as BlackBerry – has been working to try to build some momentum behind its BlackBerry 10 operating system over the last few weeks since the flagship Z10 handset. We reported on one major contract it received earlier this morning. It may have just received another. The company has been going in some fits and starts, with some feedback that the Z10 was selling only modestly with individual consumers, but getting a few major government contracts.

While Research in Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) is not confirming the latest story directly – this is an unconfirmed report at this point – if this is confirmed, it could be another major government feather in the cap of BlackBerry/Research In Motion as it tries to gain some market share in the smartphone market.

There is a quick mention on StockHouse.com that seems to cite Chinese state-run media that the Chinese government has finalized an order for two million of the new BlackBerry flagship, the QWERTY-keyboard Q10 model that runs the Research in Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY)/BlackBerry BB10 OS. If estimates of the wholesale price of a Q10 are accurate, then this contract could be worth about $1 billion for the Canada-based company.

The report states that the the Chinese Bureau of Economic and Cultural Development had singed an intent letter for the two million BBRY Q10 handsets – the QWERTY-keyboard device that is due to hit shelves in the U.K. later this month. It is reported that the devices would be “distributed” to the Faculties of Mobile Hacking and Cyber Warfare.

There is no other information that can indicate some final confirmation of this on behalf of Research in Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). We’ll keep an eye on this and see if we can get a confirmation to you.

If this comes to fruition, this would be a significant development for BlackBerry, which has seen some good news in terms of getting the BlackBerry flagship handsets into the hands of government entities.  This unconfirmed news story at this point, would go right alongside a recent story just before the Z10 came out, when Research in Motion secured a contract with the German government. Do you recall the size of that contract?

We sent you that news last month, that the German government was very particular about the security and safety of sensitive information, and Research in Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) was able to win the contract due to its partitioning capability – where business files can be separated from personal files through separate profiles that do not overlap. That technology is not currently offered on other phones.

How do you see this potential news affecting Research in Motion’s stock price come Monday morning? It may be a long weekend of anticipation for some BBRY bulls, if this does indeed turn out to be certifiable.

The original unconfirmed report can be seen on the next page.