[jonty12]

Well, this afternoon I visited AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile to compare the in-store promotion and display. We've heard AT&T take a lot of abuse over the past week. My conclusion - they're all the same. There were no posters or signs or any indication that the phone was there in any of the stores.

I had to search for the Z10 in each store (all carrier stores, not retailers). T-Mobile was the worst because the Z10 wasn't at the same level as the other phones - you had to look up to see it, but the others weren't much better. At Verizon it was in the middle of five phones, two GS3s and two WinMo phones. The staff at the stores didn't know much about the phone other than it was new this week. The Verizon rep was surprised when I mentioned that a QWERTY model was coming out soon.

That being said, there was a BlackBerry rep at the Verizon store and she was doing a good job. She knew her stuff and kept customers interested. In the 15 minutes I was there she did demos for three potential customers who were very interested in the phone. Two mentioned they were waiting for the Q. I'm not sure what happened to the other one. She also quietly dissed iPhone and Android functionality in a way I appreciated.

All three stores said they had sold a few/day since respective release dates.

I was oh so close to getting a white Z10 at Verizon (been an AT&T subscriber for 14 years), but because of my PlayBook experience and VZ's 14 day return policy with restocking fee, I'm waiting to actually see Skype released - the promise of "coming soon" won't do it for me.

[Fubaz]

a colleague at BerryReview went to Verizon this morning and said it was heavily promoted and 2 employees were wearing BlackBerry shirts.

[jonty12]

a colleague at BerryReview went to Verizon this morning and said it was heavily promoted and 2 employees were wearing BlackBerry shirts.

They were probably BB reps, not Verizon employees. The store I was at had the one rep (she was wearing a "spark" shirt and had a BB backpack) who told me she was at a T-Mobile store doing the same thing yesterday.

[route664]

i just came back from my verizon store to pick up a screen protector and case.. there' wasn't much signage.. and it was like i was on an easter egg hunt for the z10.. but when i found it.. i noticed a blackberry rep that sat down to explain all the features of the z10 to a customer.. i laughed and cried a little..

[jonty12]

i just came back from my verizon store to pick up a screen protector and case.. there' wasn't much signage.. and it was like i was on an easter egg hunt for the z10.. but when i found it.. i noticed a blackberry rep that sat down to explain all the features of the z10 to a customer.. i laughed and cried a little..

sounds like my experience. AT&T and T-Mobile were the same except for the BB rep, and T-Mobile was better at hiding the egg.

[bb624]

Pitiful. Shame on these carriers...give Blackberry the same respect at the others!

[Bbnivende]

I don't recall seeing any BB reps in Canada at the stores ... I wish they had. Maybe I am wrong on that.

[angieberry10]

My Verizon store experience this morning:

Sign on front door!

My regular sales person that I set an app with was not overly excited but didn't try to discourage me.

The blackberry z10 was in a central location in store with the other big players (Iphone 5 and galaxy etc)



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[ksanfeliz]

I was a tmobile store and theu have a good promo and as soon u enter the store the first thing u see on the wall was the bb10. I was able to play with it and i just love it. Im even thinking of cancel my service with sprint.

[ljfong]

@jonty12 your sentiment mirrors mine at this point regarding BlackBerry 10 in general. I am excited that Kindle finally came out officially for BlackBerry 10 albeit an Android port, but an official release nonetheless. The experience with PlayBook always played into my mind despite the improvements through OS revisions. I also take note that PlayBook was released under the "old regime", not the new blood under Thorsten right now. While it is true that the apps seem to be coming in encouraging rate today, but what about 6 months from now? a year from now? Will they be updated regularly? I sure hope so. It is one thing an app is released today, but another thing altogether that it will be maintained and revisions will come out regularly in the long term, which will depend on the long-term outlook of BlackBerry as a company in developer's eyes.

[RocPlayr]

The Verizon store had a poster with two BlackBerrys on it. However, it blends in with all the other posters that no one knows it is even there.

[Smartie020]

It doesn�t get carrier specific promotion in Germany. I have to wonder......

[byrddman]

Went to 2 AT&T stores in NY. One was on the day of the release and I asked if they had the Blackberry Z10 and the sales person had no idea what I was talking about. The second store I went to had them and was very helpful. The sales person was using one himself and had nothing but good things to say about it. Especially since he switched over from an iPhone in the same way that I was planning on doing.

It seems like a good plan to me as Blackberry is getting all of the loyal fans to get the devices up front without much promotion because lets face it, we were all going to get it with or without any promotions. But once they have a solid base they will begin promoting heavily and trying to get customers to switch from other devices.

[m1a1mg]

I went to the Best Buy in Spartanurg, SC this morning. No sign of the phone anywhere. I asked the sales staff for the new Blackberry. They said "we haven't put the display out yet." I asked if I could get a phone. "Yes, but only to buy".