BlackBerry (BBRY) Preps for Biggest Z10 Launch Yet: the U.S.
Following the debut of its new BlackBerry 10 operating system in late January, BlackBerry will launch its Z10 handset today, with the first devices to be carried by wireless giant AT&T (NYSE: T). Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) will start to carry the device starting March 28th. Sprint Nextel (NYSE: S) is sitting the Z10 out in favor of the keyboard-equipped Q10 launch, which is expected within months.
The launch is a key one for BlackBerry; sales slipped to $520 million in the U.S. last quarter, but the market still makes up over 20 percent of BlackBerry's total turnover.
Though the Z10, which will price similarly to Apple's (Nasdaq: AAPL) main iPhone offering at $199.99 on AT&T's network, has been available in countries like the U.K., Canada, and India for weeks, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins attributed the longer delay for a U.S. launch to extended carrier testing.
BlackBerry sees the Z10 being carried by 150 providers globally by the end of April.
With Apple and Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) largely controlling the smartphone market, many have said that BlackBerry won't be able to compete for consumer interest due to lack of an ecosystem. However, BlackBerry is making progress, with the company announcing it had 100,000 apps in its app store. One Morgan Stanley analyst this week noted that BlackBerry has about 90 percent of the 600 top apps already on its system, with many converted over from the Android framework.
As for corporate and government customers, many expected that a clearer picture won't be available until later in the year at best, when more of the kinks have been worked out for the BB10 operating system.
Shares are up in early trading.