BlackBerry smartphones have always been famous for their physical QWERTY keyboards that still appeal to a number of consumers, but when the company launched its new operating system the focus was on the touchscreen BlackBerry Z10. April is the month that is down for the release of the QWERTY BlackBerry Q10, and now we have some price speculation on UK carrier O2 for the handset.
We heard last month that a couple of retailers had put the device up at a pretty high SIM free price, with the arrival of the handset expected this month for some carriers and retailers. Now it is being claimed by Viral Phone that O2 will be offering its customers the BlackBerry Q10 for about £530 SIM free.
The handset is expected to arrive on the UK carrier at sometime during May, and obviously the company will also be offering the handset on a number of contracts. This should see customers getting the handset for free on condition of a new two year contract being agreed to and could cost as little as £30 each month.To remind you the BlackBerry Q10 uses a 3.1-inch display with a resolution of 720 x 720 that is coupled with that physical keyboard. There is also a dual core processor running at 1.5GHz under the hood, with a rear facing 8-megapixel camera and a 2-megapixel unit on the front.
BlackBerry has announced that its new Q10 smartphone the one with a physical keypad will make its global debut in Canada on May 1.In a blog posting on the company's website, BlackBerry said all three of Canada's big wireless carriers — Bell Mobility, Rogers Wireless and Telus — will have the handset in their stores and kiosks in eight days, with prices starting at $199 with a three-year contract.
Telus and Bell have said they will sell the phone without a contract for $700. Rogers will sell the phone for $649.99 without a contract, and will be the only Canadian carrier that offers the BlackBerry Q10 in a white version, as well as the more common black model.The launch date is in line with analysts' expectations.BlackBerry said the Q10 would also be available through Virgin Mobile Canada, Fido, Koodo Mobile, Sasktel, and at The Source, Best Buy and Future Shop. It said further details on those rollouts were still to come.
Availability dates for the Q10 in the U.S. and other countries are still to be announced. That's similar to the staggered rollout for BlackBerry's Z10 model, which launched first in Canada and several other countries on Jan. 30. The Z10 wasn't available in the U.S. until March 22.
In March, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said the Q10 wouldn't be available in the U.S. for two or three months.The decision to stagger the release of the touchscreen and keypad versions prompted some criticism from analysts.
The new Q10 model, which has both a keypad and a touchscreen, is considered especially crucial for BlackBerry's turnaround hopes as many BlackBerry users prefer a physical keypad over the touchscreen found on the iPhone and many Android devices.
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