Vodafone Malta has launched the BlackBerry Torch™ 9800 on the local market, the first BlackBerry to feature a sliding form factor.

"The BlackBerry Torch 9800 offers users the best of both worlds with a full physical keyboard and touch-screen," the company said.

The highly-awaited BlackBerry 6 operating system also makes its debut on the BlackBerry Torch 9800, ushering the next-generation of messaging and multimedia on BlackBerry.

"Adept for socially-connected consumers and packed with the tools business customers love, the new BlackBerry Torch is the world’s first smartphone to combine a BlackBerry keyboard with a full touch screen experience. The BlackBerry Torch allows users to communicate in any way they want, whether they choose to type out messages on the capacitive touch screen or easy-to-use BlackBerry keyboard or whether they prefer to browse the Internet using pinch to zoom or fluidly navigate with the optical track-pad," Vodafone said.

“We were the first to launch the BlackBerry solution in Malta and we have a rich history of innovation and collaboration with Research in Motion,” said Alexandre Froment Curtil, Head of Marketing at Vodafone Malta. “Our two companies that brought the first BlackBerry smartphones to the local market have teamed up again with the new BlackBerry Torch to provide our users an enormously popular service with the latest technological advances.”

In addition to searching the Internet for video, the BlackBerry Torch smartphone also features more multimedia apps that let users download TV shows and watch live TV, as well as create video content and upload it to YouTube.

Vodafone Malta is offering customers the BlackBerry Torch 9800 Smartphone free on smartphone 95 plans. It is also available for €599 without a postpaid plan.