It’s a bad news for the Canada-based Research In Motion Company that the controversy associated with its BlackBerry Bold’s “heating problem” is heating up. The users of BlackBerry Bold are reporting that their keyboards are heating up during recharging, causing concerns of battery fires or mishaps.

According to reports, BlackBerry Bold, which was introduced to the Japanese market just last week, has “heating problem” associated with battery recharging – more than 30 BlackBerry Bold users have reported their keyboards heating up during battery recharging.

However, there are not any reports of injuries or fires associated with BlackBerry Bold’s heating problem.

Responding to the reports, Japan's largest mobile operator – NTT DoCoMo, on Friday, halted the sales of BlackBerry Bold in Japan because of the phone’s overheating problems during battery recharging.

According to NTT DoCoMo, About 4,000 BlackBerry Bolds have been sold in Japan – 30 users have complained about the keyboard heating up, but the number of other users, who have noticed the heating problem, but have not yet reported it, is still unknown.

Meanwhile, Research In Motion yesterday ruled out that the faulty batteries are causing keyboards’ heating up during battery recharging of BlackBerry Bold. The company admitted that the heating problem is there, but it doesn’t exactly know the real cause of the problem. However, RIM stated that the efforts to fix the problem are going on.

According to Avi Greengart, a U.S. based analyst with industry research firm Current Analysis, BlackBerry Bold’s heating problem will give black mark to the image of RIM in Japan.

Greengart said that this is definitely "a black mark on RIM's brand in Japan," and it's worse for the company that it happened there rather than in the United States. He said, "Awareness and usage of the BlackBerry in North America is sky-high, but that is not the case in Japan, a market that RIM is trying to penetrate.” Greengart said the companies should resolve the issue and return the Bold to the market as soon as possible.

RIM’s BlackBerry Bold is a 3G smart phone. It offers support for Wi-Fi and aGPS. It features keyboard backlighting, a built-in speakerphone, video and audio playback capability, 1 GB on-board memory, a 480 x 320 (217 ppi) pixel screen and tethered modem support through an integrated wireless modem.