TORONTO, Ont. – The Waterloo-based cellphone company BlackBerry has launched a brand-new touchscreen smartphone which goes on sale Tuesday at 10 a.m. across the country.
The mood outside key Toronto stores was subdued with no lineup at the Rogers headquarters.
Tech Analyst from PC Mag, Sasha Segan told 680News the company deliberately chose to release the Z10 first, ahead of the Q10, which will come with a physical keyboard.
“The market in general has moved towards touchscreen phones that are better for entertainment, better for gaming, than phones with smaller screens and so, Blackberry is hoping to expand its market with the Z10,” Segan said.
The Q10 is expected to go on sale late March or early April.
The revamped models are powered by a whole new operating system.
The brand-new Blackberry will launch in Toronto at the Rogers Store at 333 Bloor Street East, at Ted Rogers Way Tuesday at 8 a.m.
CEO Torsten Heins will present the all-new Z10 just after 8 a.m.
Some analysts have been concerned that BlackBerry’s launch came too late to recover the lustre of its name.
After two major delays some in the technology sector had grown skeptical over whether the former Research In Motion would survive long enough in its current form to get the phones to the market.
Some BlackBerry uses hung onto their older phones or switched to competitor’s phones while the the launch of the new BlackBerry was delayed.
The Z10 is expected to typically sell for $150 on a three-year contract. Koodo is selling it without a contract for $550.
It isn’t expected to be released in the U.S. until March.
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Thorn, I think you do not get it. Blackberry is for smart and busy people who do not have the time, and also do not think it is an intelligent bahaviour, to line up in sub-degree temperatures to buy something that they can buy intelligently from the comfort of their home (pre-order online which I just did). Blackberry is used by CEOs and other intelligent people like the President of United States. Do you expect such people to line up, in even any weather, to buy a smart phone. Steve Jobs used to excite the easily excitable with unnecessary gagets and get them to line up for a phone which can be purchased anytime. Think smart. Get Blackberry and live smart.
The Micro SD cards comes in different class (speed) you know. You can get a 32gb class 10 card for around $30 on sale.
Looka me. LOOKA ME!
I certainly am not going to upgrade to any brand of “smart phone”. I Still using my SAmsung M210. I use a cell phone as a phone only. I make maybe $5-$8 worth of calls a month. The usual, honey, I need some bread type of thing.
Computer stuff like games and e0-mail I have one at home but I don’t necessarily turn it on everyday. if someone needs to get a hold of me, my home phone (voip) has voice mail.
NOTHING is that urgent.
I have a wobbly table at work, so the Z10 should come in handy to prop it up!
Either that or a fancy paper weight…
I will mine this week from Rogers. I am eligible for hardware upgrade. Waited to BB10.
don’t get suckered into buying one of these. blackberry will not exist in 6 months. its already embarrassing enough that there are no people lining up to buy these on their own home turf. the apps are also garbage. half of them are android apps with a wrapper,meaning,expect them to run poorly and crash. 20,000 of those apps were ports that were done in the span of a weekend,that tells you the quality.
I like the phone a lot, but is there enough there to get me to sell my 1.5 year old BB Bold for a pittance and spend $600 on a Z10? No, its a phone and email/text device for me. I also think there will be lots of these available in a 6-12 months as some people realize they still prefer their IPhone 5 since it integrates with their IPAD and IMAC better. Apple has a suite of products and is constantly innovating and updating, but BB? My worry with BB is where are they on their BB11 or BB12 releases? It was an all-hands-on-deck effort to release BB10 which only KEEPS them in the game. My guess is that they think they can coast for a while now. No word yet on when BB10 will be available on my Playbook, another product which has basically been abandoned for over a year.
iOS has essentially been the same since its inception. It’s now beyond boring. Apple really needs to do something different in iOS 7. I would never think of buying an iPhone 5 right now.
ZZZZZzzzzzz…
Z10 has an sd card that supports up to 64GB formatted. Doesn’t hit Netherlands until March! Can’t wait!
It’s going to be the typical Rogers way of doing things – Treat new customers better than old customers. Keep strict rules on existing customers making it almost impossible to upgrade to this device if their “upgrade eligibility” doesn’t pass their stringent requirements where the right amount of time has elapsed. I don’t know about everyone else, but even though I would love switch to this advice and support our Canadian devices, Rogers is the brick wall. I am not paying full price for a device when I am a few months away from being “elgible” for an upgrade. BS!! Complete and utter BS.
I called on the weekend, and told them my contract was up in May, you know waht he told me, sir guess what you are elgible for upgrade, what colour would you like your Z10?
I would like the Z10 but I would need to use it for a few days to see how it is in real-world scenarios. It would be very very very difficult for me to switch from my 64GB IPhone 5 to a device with a lot less capacity. Where would I put all my music, photos, videos and stuff like that? I’m so addicted to my Iphone 5 that i know for sure I’ll want it back if I ever switch to a Z10.
Is that all you have on your iphone5 64 g, omg get a Z10 you have unlimited storage.
Lets see you get 16G internal plus,64g card, yap stick to your max. 64 iphone5.
I think I will stick to my Iphone 5 with faster processor, memory (flash memory is way faster than an SD card btw). thanks for the advice, I will definitely stick to my Iphone 5
Getting mine in a few days. Currently have an iPhone 4S. But I’ll be glad to support Blackberry in their comeback. Welcome back to the game Waterloo
I have an iPhone 5 for sale… does anybody want it? I’ll be getting my BlackBerry Z10 today!
forget the games and toys, if you want to be productive, stay in touch, maintain security, make money and manage your time then this is the best business phone out there. still used by military, government and CEOs this one is even better. holding out for the Q10 to accompany my android.
I’m getting mine today! xD