BlackBerry CEO Disappointed by Late U.S. BB Z10 Launch

Device now available in Canada and UK

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins has expressed his disappointment with BlackBerry Z10's mid-March launch in the United States.

The device just launched in Canada and has been available in the United Kingdom for a few days, with the handset performing well commercially thus far in the latter region.

Heins pointed towards U.S. phone carriers' strict testing system on the longer wait for American consumers. "We need to respect that. Am I a bit disappointed? Yeah, I would be lying saying no."

"But it is what it is and we're working with all our carrier partners to speed it up as much as we can," Heins added during an interview at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto. "We need to win back market share to be relevant," he continued. "We have to be aggressive in the U.S. market." He's confident that BlackBerry can eventually become the third ecosystem behind Android and Apple's iOS.

As for the device's performance in the UK, the executive said: "It's beyond expectations. White is sold out already. The black is hard to stock up again. It's very encouraging. I won't share the number because I need to verify it, but we are getting a substantial number of users moving from other platforms to BlackBerry. That is an interesting data point."

Previously known as Research In Motion, the company's first day trading as 'BlackBerry' saw its stock increase by 15 percent.

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