Why the BlackBerry Z10 is on sale in the U.K first

The BlackBerry Z10 with the U.K. flag added via Photoshop.

3 days ago, the company formerly known as RIM pulled out all the stops at a super-swanky event in New York to launch two new phones that will either kill or cure the company.

Despite the global launch happening in the U.S., America will be the last in the first batch of countries to see the Z10, BlackBerry's first phone to ship with its new OS, BlackBerry 10. Americans have to wait until March to buy the touch-screen phone, but it became available to buy in the U.K. yesterday. That's six days ahead even of BlackBerry's home market in Canada. On the face of it, this seems like a strange decision: why release the Z10 in a relatively small country first?

The overriding reason, according to Francisco Jeronimo, research manager for European Mobile Devices at IDC, is that the U.K. is the biggest BlackBerry market in the world. Contrast his figures: in the third quarter of 2012, BlackBerry had a 12 percent market share in the U.K., with Apple at 25 percent. In the U.S., BlackBerry accounted for just 2 percent to Apple's 25 percent.

Speaking, a BlackBerry senior VP Andrew Bocking echoed this point: "The U.K. has been a key market for us for so long. We have over 8 million BlackBerry users today in the U.K. and we are very excited for them to be on the leading edge getting access to BB10 on the Z10."

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BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 launched with BlackBerry 10 OS

The BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 are the first new smartphones from RIM sporting the new BlackBerry 10 OS and will be going up against the the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S3.

BlackBerry have revealed the new BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones, two devices which will be running the new BlackBerry 10 OS and which BlackBerry hopes will be a real competitor to Apple's iOS and Google's Android operating system.

The BlackBerry Q10 is the first BlackBerry 10 smartphone with a physical keyboard, it features a glass laminated back which is reportedly lighter and stronger than plastic.

The BlackBerry Z10 will be available in the UK from tomorrow with both the Black and White versions being available dependant on the store and network.

BlackBerry has confirmed that the Blackberry Q10 will be arriving in the UK from April.

BlackBerry Z10: features

The BlackBerry Z10 is an all-touchscreen device sporting a 4.2-inch 1280x768 display and 365DPI making it a higher resolution display than the Apple iPhone 5.

It's BlackBerry's first 4G smartphone and will initially be available on 4G through EE who are currently the only network capable of supporting the superfast mobile data service.

Under the hood there's a 1.5GHz dual-core processor along with a very meaty 2GB of RAM which will no doubt have been put in to tackle the advanced multi-tasking and image-editing that has been included in BB10. Taking on the world of Google Wallet and the Android operating system, the Z10 also comes with NFC and Bluetooth 4.0.

There's an 8MP snapper on the back capable of recording 1080p and a 2MP camera on the front with 720p recording and for BBM Video calls. The Z10 comes with 16GB of storage along with a Micro SD slot which can be expanded up to 32GB.

BlackBerry World

BlackBerry has confirmed that it will be getting some big name apps to rivals Apple's iTunes store with Amazon Kindle, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter all heading to the new OS.

It was also announced earlier in the week that BlackBerry had signed a deal with the major TV studios and film networks confirming that big titles such as Prometheus, American Dad and Friends would all be available on BlackBerry 10.

BlackBerry 10: features

The new BlackBerry 10 operating system has been designed to operate without a back button, instead users simply swipe up from below the screen enabling them to access the main menu and flick between apps.

'Peek and Flow' is the new UI that has been designed for BlackBerry 10 letting users swipe up and then across and see a quick overview of all their notifications, this can be performed during any app.

One of the new features for BlackBerry 10 is the new BBM Video call function, not only are BBM users able to video call each other but can share their screens making it a useful business tool.

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