If you notice the BlackBerry Z10 making a serious move up best-selling smartphone charts, there is a very good reason. A mystery customer recently purchased 1 million BlackBerry Z10 smartphones in a single transaction, easily marking the largest single purchase in the history of the company. Reported on FoxNews.com and verified by AP news outlets, that purchase has to make company execs and bigwigs at BlackBerry ecstatic with their new handset design.
The BlackBerry Z10 is a totally touchscreen driven handset, unlike past BlackBerries which delivered a ubiquitous and iconic full QWERTY keyboard. The handset also delivers the BlackBerry 10 operating system for the first time, and the Canadian company is rolling out a BlackBerry Q10 sister device as well. The Q10 will deliver a smaller touchscreen, and return the BlackBerry tradition of a physical keyboard design.
The Canadian company formally known as Research in Motion (RIM) is putting all their eggs in the proverbial single basket with the BlackBerry 10 operating system and BlackBerry Z10 mobile handset. The company used to rule the smartphone roost, but shortly after Apple released the iPhone in 2007, smartphone shoppers fell in love with the idea of a touch screen. It wasn’t until late 2012 that the company decided to revamp their approach, and deliver features commonly found on the current best selling Android and iOS smartphones.
The handset is already available for purchase around the world, and is slated to launch on AT&T in the United States on March 22 with a $199 on contract price tag. The Z10 has been available since late January in the United Kingdom and Canada. AT&T will be the first carrier in the US to offer the BlackBerry Z10, but US rival T-Mobile claimed they expect to offer the new BlackBerry handset for corporate customers by the end of this week as well.
BlackBerry Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said in an interview with the Associated Press last month that his company’s goal was to regain massive market share in the US. That is one of the largest global markets where the company has been hit the hardest, as the Android operating system and iOS powered smartphones relegated BlackBerry to just a 2% market share in 2012. That is down from a massive 46% market share in the US in 2008. The BlackBerry Z10 delivers a large 4.2 inch display with 768 x 1,280 pixel resolution. A 1.5 GHz dual core processor powers the handset, 2.0 GB of RAM memory is on board, and the 16 GB of built-in storage can be accentuated by the provided microSD slot.
March 22, 2013 at 8:45 am
When I heard the news last week BlackBerry only said they had an order for 1 million BlackBerry 10 devices. Either way it is great news but I was wondering if BlackBerry actually clarified that it was in fact just a Z10 order? I own a Z10, typing this message right now with it, and I love the phone. I think BlackBerrys
Biggest challenge is convincing people to give them another chance. Once people try this phone they will love it.