It’s not exactly reminiscent of BlackBerry’s 2008 launch of the Storm, but the Z10 still seems to be off to a good start.
BlackBerry today released the BlackBerry Z10 all-touch smartphone in its homeland of Canada on Rogers. The launch was attended by BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins, Rogers President and CEO Nadir Mohamed, as well as plenty of loyal BlackBerry customers.
The first person to buy a new BlackBerry Z10 was named Harp Dhonsi, and he said he was most excited to play with BlackBerry Hub. Being lucky number one, he got to take a picture with Heins and Mohamed and his new Z10. From the pictures, it seems that Rogers enjoyed a nice turnout at the event. Even the CrackBerry team made it out.
No one invited Darrell, our Toronto-based reporter.
We reached out to Rogers for comment on the event and sales, and received this back from a spokesperson:
Rogers has sold BlackBerry devices to Canadians for over 10 years, longer than anyone else. To support the launch, we have BlackBerry 10 trained in-store reps, small business and enterprise experts are available each step of the way to ensure customers have a seamless BlackBerry 10 experience.
I can’t speculate on upcoming sales. However, I can tell you we’ve seen great interest from our customer base in BlackBerry10, and many Canadians are looking for the next BlackBerry experience, powered by Rogers LTE network.
Canada is BlackBerry’s home turf, and though the platform has lost marketshare in the U.S., Canada still remains a strong hold for the company. According to a recent analyst note, half of the Canadian pre-registrations for Z10 came from iPhone or Android users, and a Rogers’ spokesperson claimed that consumer interest is “definitely strong.”
Moreover, sales in the UK are said to be quite high, with customers buying the device in “large numbers” and some retail outlets even selling out of the device early. Like Canada, the UK is also a strong market for BlackBerry.
But will the story be the same here in the U.S.?
According to the company, the BlackBerry Z10 is currently undergoing testing by U.S. carriers and should launch in late March. In fact, a recently leaked T-Mobile roadmap shows that the Z10 should make an appearance on March 27.
