Today is the day for Blackberry enthusiasts… the BB10 launch event (I’m still not holding my breath on this actually reviving the ailing smartphone maker!)

 The company has unveiled the latest platform and some new devices to tease you with… hey, they’ve even announced that Alicia Keys is the official “Creative Director” for Blackberry – whatever that means!  It looks like the UK will get the device first, followed by Canada etc… personally I’d rather see a Global roll out at the same time and in all honesty, teasing markets like this really does p&ss off users but it seems to be a common strategy. RIM has lost loads of marketshare over the years and winning these customers back is going to be a giant task for them. Some details from the BB blog…

Worldwide, we have several key markets that are revealing pricing and availability today, including the UK, Canada and UAE:

• In the UK, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available beginning tomorrow on pay monthly contracts and pre-pay plans from EE, O2, Vodafone, Phones 4u, BT, 3UK and the Carphone Warehouse. BlackBerry Z10 smartphones will be available fully subsidized on competitive monthly pay contracts. Price points will vary according to carriers and retail partners.
• In Canada, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available on February 5th. Pricing will vary by carrier partner, but it will retail for around $149.99 on a 3-year contract.
• In the UAE, the BlackBerry Z10 will be available on February 10th. Pricing will vary by carrier partner, but unsubsidized it will retail for AED 2,599.
• In the U.S. market, we expect availability with most carriers for the BlackBerry Z10 to be in March. Today, U.S. carriers will start announcing pre-registration and price plans.

Many global partners have already launched or will be launching pre-registration and pre-order sites today.

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