With our own set of intel pointing to a late March launch for the BlackBerry Z10, T-Mobile is going on the record with Bloomberg and stating they are “aiming to be the first American carrier ‘out of the gate'” with the device.
“The device is more stable than we anticipated,” said Frank Sickinger, head of business sales at T-Mobile USA, a unit of Deutsche Telekom AG. “If we are able to speed up the launch date, we will do that. Right now it’s looking like mid-March.”
For its part, the company formerly known as RIM has only stated that the Z10 would be available beginning sometime in March inside the US. With the American market still firmly established at BlackBerry’s biggest audience, the overall response to a “late” launch drove the company’s stock down 17 percent in the days after the January 30th launch.
T-Mobile will sell the Z10 for $199 with a two-year commitment, with the device going on sale a week early for business customers. T-Mobile sees the arrival of devices like the Z10 a chance to win back business customers and increase their 5.5% market share of the business services market. The Z10 will also carry the honor of being one of the first LTE devices on T-Mobile’s network, along with the upcoming Galaxy S III LTE.
“I’m glad to see BlackBerry launch a relevant product,” Sickinger said. “BlackBerry stands to do very well in 2013 with T-Mobile.”
Just how well BlackBerry and the Z10 will truly do once available on the nations largest carriers is anyones guess.