U.S. BlackBerry 10 Launch Might Be Later Than We Thought

News
By Jane McEntegart
published

When BlackBerry unveiled its first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, the BlackBerry Z10, last week, it said the U.S. would get the phone in March. However, it seems the U.S. launch may push things right to the end of that month-long launch window.

Last week, BlackBerry (formerly known as Research in Motion or RIM) announced the first ever phone to ship with BlackBerry 10 OS, the BlackBerry Z10. Speaking at a press event in New York City, CEO Thorsten Heins revealed that the Z10, which is launching first, would come to major US carriers sometime in March. However, if recent rumors are to believed, the launch of the Z10 won't be until the very end of the month.

With the Z10 already on sale in the UK and launching today in Canada, those without the device are eager to get their hands on the newest BlackBerry. Online auctions were fetching as much as $1700 last week. Even sales expiring this week have already hit $1000. According to TMoNews, which obtained a leaked release schedule for T-Mobile US, the BlackBerry Z10 won't hit T-Mobile until March 27. The carrier also plans to launch two other phones that day. These are the Galaxy S III LTE and the Galaxy Exhibit. March 27 will also bring us the T-Mobile Sonic 2.0 Mobile HotSpot with LTE support.

Though March 27 is certainly well within the time frame offered by Thorsten Heins last Wednesday, it's a little disappointing to hear BlackBerry fans in the United States will have to wait so long for the phone, especially when it is available across the pond and in the Great White North. Still, there's a chance that T-Mobile won't be the first carrier to launch the Z10. The device is expected to launch on all four major carriers in the United States. Fingers crossed someone else has the phone pegged for an earlier launch.

The Z10 packs a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, a 4.2-inch display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of on board storage, an 8-megapixel camera in the back, a 2-megapixel camera up front. Be sure to check out our live blog of the event, as well as our unboxing, and our first impressions of the device.

A Brief Look at the Technical Specs of BlackBerry Z10, Q10

BB10 Interview With the QNX Boss of BlackBerry OS

Check out our hands-on with BlackBerry 10 on the Z10.

Interview With the BlackBerry Z10, Q10 Industrial Designer

A Complete Video Walkthrough of BlackBerry 10 OS

Read the full live blog here from the BlackBerry Experience

Contact Us for News Tips, Corrections and Feedback

Jane McEntegart
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • eddieroolz
    Blame the carriers. AT&T and Verizon are a nightmare for device manufacturers. Heins was not about to hold back the launch of BB10 in UK, Canada and elsewhere just to wait for the shoddy job US carriers are doing.
    Reply
  • halcyon
    This is completely expected. Add a little delay so that those folks that are actually interested in the device (yes, they're out there) can't wait to drop their $$$ on it as soon as they can and actually consider themselves lucky to be able to do so.
    Reply
  • belardo
    This has nothing to do with blackberry. US carriers need 2 months to figure out how to screw up a new phone. Since its a very new phone, they need more time unlike android.

    Reply
  • robochump
    Eh, who cares at this point. Sure there are plenty of people on here that root for the underdog but BB requires enterprises to upgrade BES in order to work with BB10. At this point, not worth it and a another bad move by BB.
    Reply
  • walter87
    robochumpEh, who cares at this point. Sure there are plenty of people on here that root for the underdog but BB requires enterprises to upgrade BES in order to work with BB10. At this point, not worth it and a another bad move by BB.Enterprises typically don't rush into to upgrading existing devices as soon new ones are released. The biggest impact for the delayed launch in the US is for the consumer market as more and more consumers opt to renew existing contracts with current iOS and android devices (also, for the consumer, you no longer require BIS to work with BB10).

    Enterprise will slowly adopt the new devices when their ready.
    Reply
  • Just go on a short trip to Canada and buy an unlocked phone. Won't that work?
    Reply
  • meltbox360
    First off enterprises have had the phone since before launch testing it ans I BELIEVE but am not 100% sure that the BES upgrade this time is free if your coming from a lower version. Can't recall where I saw this. I'm grabbing one. Hope T-Mobile launches it sooner. Honestly the one thing I care about the most (the browser) this phone does the best. So yes I would be one of those who would feel lucky to buy it today or even on the very day it launches in the US or on T-Mobile.
    Reply
  • meltbox360
    First off enterprises have had the phone since before launch testing it ans I BELIEVE but am not 100% sure that the BES upgrade this time is free if your coming from a lower version. Can't recall where I saw this. I'm grabbing one. Hope T-Mobile launches it sooner. Honestly the one thing I care about the most (the browser) this phone does the best. So yes I would be one of those who would feel lucky to buy it today or even on the very day it launches in the US or on T-Mobile.
    Reply