Japan’s leading cellphone network operator has withdrawn the BlackBerry Bold just a week after its release in the country. It comes after 30 users complained the keyboard was heating up during recharging.

Manufacturers Research In Motion say it has had no reports of any customers being harmed by the heating or of handsets catching fire. It notes the withdrawal does not affect sales in other countries and believes the problem is specific to Japan. It’s still investigating the cause but has ruled out battery issues.

The Bold model has had a sketchy history having been announced last spring but not launched in the US until November. A series of mysterious delays were supposedly down to network testing, though there were rumors battery issues needed resolving. When the device was finally ready, it’s release apparently had to be put back to avoid clashing with carrier AT&T’s release of the 3G iPhone.

Battery issues had previous caused a delay to the handset’s original release in its native Canada, with some customers reporting connection problems once they did get hold of the phone. And UK sales were suspended by carrier Orange after “software issues”.

It’s reported that the BlackBerry Bold has sold 4,000 units so far in Japan, so 30 complaints represents 0.75% of customers – that may sound a small number, but it’s a pretty significant proportion of users to go to the point of reporting a problem.

There are a few details different in the Japanese edition of the handset which might play a role in the problem. The keyboard has been redesigned to allow entry of Japanese characters. There’s also a version of the handset with no camera, though there’s no word on whether this version is affected by the problem. The phone was also reconfigured to allow a quad-band rather than tri-band system, giving it better coverage in rural and mountainous areas.

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Entry was posted on Friday, February 27th, 2009 at 3:40 pm under Cell phones.

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