[Charles Martin1]

What's the deal with the slow release of the Z10 in the US?

That country seems to be increasingly suffering from free market avoidance.

[brmiller1976]

The cause is less interesting than the fact that it is happening, and RIM is going to waste millions of dollars promoting a product that Americans cannot buy at any price.

[BThunderW]

US has been brutal on RIM regarding the BlackBerry. The demand seems low compared to other countries. BlackBerry is selling in regions first where they know they will get good sales. They absolutely have to stop hemorrhaging money and having good sales will bode well for future of the company. Look at it this way, by the time Z10 hits US, it'll have more apps and perhaps even some OS improvements.

[SlcCorrado]

That's not entirely true. You can get a z10 for 800 bucks on Tuesday from BlackBerry Z10 Orders

[bbinexile]

What's the deal with the slow release of the Z10 in the US?

That country seems to be increasingly suffering from free market avoidance.

What's the deal with posters using bberry's intentional delayed release in the US as an opportunity for anti-americanism
Only time will tell if it's the correct strategy but it is not a vindication of the superiority of foreign markets
To think I used to believe in the international fraternity of blackberry lovers

[Jon Tessler]

The cause is less interesting than the fact that it is happening, and RIM is going to waste millions of dollars promoting a product that Americans cannot buy at any price.

how is it a waste of money? do the movie studios waste money when the put out trailers of movies that are not going to be in theaters for 3 or 4 months? Having a commercial during the biggest sporting event in the US is a brilliant move.

[Charles Martin1]

What's the deal with posters using bberry's intentional delayed release in the US as an opportunity for anti-americanism
Only time will tell if it's the correct strategy but it is not a vindication of the superiority of foreign markets
To think I used to believe in the international fraternity of blackberry lovers

Protectionism has never been so prevalent as it's becoming now...

[anon(3896606)]

how is it a waste of money? do the movie studios waste money when the put out trailers of movies that are not going to be in theaters for 3 or 4 months? Having a commercial during the biggest sporting event in the US is a brilliant move.

Don't listen to anything he says, he is such an obvious troll it is not even funny...

[RHDJEEZY]

That's not entirely true. You can get a z10 for 800 bucks on Tuesday from BlackBerry Z10 Orders

I need to know which carrier are you purchasing these phone from before I make my purchase with you.
Rogers?
Wind?
Mobilicity?

[pmccartney]

What's funny to me about all these (later to the US) posts is that so many people were complaining that BlackBerry wasn't doing any major marketing well before the availability of the product. Well - that's how it is now, in the US, so somebody got their wish. Big time media marketing for a month or so then release the product.

The cause is less interesting than the fact that it is happening, and RIM is going to waste millions of dollars promoting a product that Americans cannot buy at any price.

[austriker]

I need to know which carrier are you purchasing these phone from before I make my purchase with you.
Rogers?
Wind?
Mobilicity?

Second that. I want to make sure I'll get lte on tmobile

[Desktoper]

What's the deal with the slow release of the Z10 in the US?

That country seems to be increasingly suffering from free market avoidance.

The question you pose is not supported by evidence to reach the conclusion you draw. The manufacturer and the carriers have mutual interests in serving the marketplace, so it's unlikely either party would knowingly shoot itself in the foot. It's been pointed out in other threads that if an agreement between carriers on a common release date were upset by a technical glitch for one of them, that might set the date back. This may, in fact, have happened with delays in testing approval. What's causing the real frustration is the lack of a firm date...one with both a month and a day. As soon as that's known, it should be used in the ads to count down "Z Day" to generate hype and lineups.

[kfh227]

US has been brutal on RIM regarding the BlackBerry. The demand seems low compared to other countries. BlackBerry is selling in regions first where they know they will get good sales. They absolutely have to stop hemorrhaging money and having good sales will bode well for future of the company. Look at it this way, by the time Z10 hits US, it'll have more apps and perhaps even some OS improvements.

Ahhhhh, company with $2B in Free Cash Flow each yeat, no debt and billions in cash is not hemorrhaging anything. this lie has to stop being repeated.

Sorry, but if there is one lie about RIM that I hate it is this. Sadly, most people (even "analysts") don't know that earnings means nothing and free cash flow si what actually matters.

[kfh227]

how is it a waste of money? do the movie studios waste money when the put out trailers of movies that are not going to be in theaters for 3 or 4 months? Having a commercial during the biggest sporting event in the US is a brilliant move.

Hate to rain on your parade, but more than one movie has started advertising way to early, just to be released and having me be so sick of the commercials that I have no interest in seeing it.

timing is paramount. Google spent a few months hyping up android before it got released and it worked out very well.

[kfh227]

The question you pose is not supported by evidence to reach the conclusion you draw. The manufacturer and the carriers have mutual interests in serving the marketplace, so it's unlikely either party would knowingly shoot itself in the foot. It's been pointed out in other threads that if an agreement between carriers on a common release date were upset by a technical glitch for one of them, that might set the date back. This may, in fact, have happened with delays in testing approval. What's causing the real frustration is the lack of a firm date...one with both a month and a day. As soon as that's known, it should be used in the ads to count down "Z Day" to generate hype and lineups.

Is there any official statement on this?

[Desktoper]

Is there any official statement on this?

I haven't seen any "official" statement. Carriers might have reasons for preferring individual release dates or they might like the idea of a common date with maximum focused media attention to drive sales. One other possibility is that one or more carriers played "hard to get" in an effort to squeeze concessions out of RIM BlackBerry at the last minute. The lack of a unified statement from BlackBerry and the carriers on the situation doesn't help matters, does it?

Update:

I've found a reference to possible reasons for carrier delay in the U.S. market. The link below mentions Sprint deals with Apple for quota sales of iPhones which may dissuade Sprint from promoting a competing phone, and also Verizon perhaps having issues with a longer testing process for their radio bands. These are not official statements from the carriers themselves, which would be preferable to speculations. Anyway, here's the link:

"Sprint, as far as we've heard, has a deal with Apple that requires them to hit iPhone sales quotas. So they aren't interested in pushing any other full touch phones. This is probably why we're seeing Sprint making an official support announcement for the Q10, when it launches. But we've seen nothing about Sprint support for the Z10.

Among the big US carriers, that leaves Verizon. They've clearly announced support for the Z10. But this phone would require an LTE and CDMA radio. This is definitely more complex (and unique) compared to LTE / HSPA / GSM phones. It's entirely possible that Verizon's testing process is just not as far along as the other guys. And, given the history of Verizon's support for new BlackBerry devices (remember the Storm exclusives?), it's possible that there is an agreement in place that guarantees Verizon a spot at the table upon initial launch."

http://crackberry.com/weighing-us-bl...0-release-date

Update 2:

"In the last few weeks, developers who qualified for the Limited Edition device have been submitting their applications to trade up from their Dev Alpha. However, those who are on the Verizon network were receiving emails about an issue with the CDMA carrier in the USA. Today BlackBerry released a statement concerning the availability:

Many developers have already submitted their requests for the Limited Edition BlackBerry 10 device. We've started sending out confirmation emails to those that have qualified for the device. Due to unforeseen circumstances beyond our control we are unable to offer a Limited Edition BlackBerry 10 for developers on the Verizon network."

http://crackberry.com/blackberry-10-...ess-developers

[Denise in Los Angeles]

Second that. I want to make sure I'll get lte on tmobile

I don't know about the other 3 carriers, but T-Mobile's network is not LTE yet.... so we have to wait or switch.

[CHIP72]

how is it a waste of money? do the movie studios waste money when the put out trailers of movies that are not going to be in theaters for 3 or 4 months? Having a commercial during the biggest sporting event in the US is a brilliant move.

Considering that just about every other company in the smartphone segment, heck in the computer technology segment, doesn't advertise a product until it has been released or at the very least its release is imminent (within the next week), I think Blackberry's decision to promote the new BB 10 smartphones when they won't be available in the U.S. for at least another month is a lot less than brilliant.

For those of you who disagree with the above, think about it this way - if Apple, Google, Microsoft, Samsung, HTC, LG, Nokia, etc. decided to hype a smartphone or operating system that wasn't available or wouldn't be available in the very near future, what would you think? You'd probably think such a decision would be stupid and laughable. There are two other things to keep in mind:

1) If the delay is due to FCC issues it's possible there could be further delays (receiving clearance for government regulations can sometimes be a real pain), which would put more egg on Blackberry's face.

2) For most people not on Crackberry, the Blackberry brand currently has at best a questionable reputation, due to the increasing gap in the quality of services between the Blackberry smartphones that have been available (BB 7 OS devices) and competing operating systems. If that wasn't the case, Blackberry wouldn't have been losing market share or had some of its business/government partners drop its products in favor of other, competing products (as has been the case with the branch of the U.S. federal government I currently work in, where the Blackberry Bold 9650 and 9930 are being replaced by the iPhone 4/4s). When a company needs to rebuild its brand, it can't afford to take actions that could undermine interest in the product, and I think the delayed launch relative to the advertising could undermine interest in BB 10. Keep in mind also that Blackberry's primary target audience for the BB 10 smartphones are people who would be moving from another operating system or who do not currently have smartphones, not the people who already love Blackberry and will stick around no matter what.

None of the above is meant to say BB 10 is a bad product; I (and probably 99% of the people on this site) haven't had a chance as of this writing to actually use a product operating BB 10, so I don't know if it is good or not. I actually suspect it is/will be a pretty good product. But marketing products that won't be available until weeks later, especially in an industry that moves as fast as mobile technology, is NOT a smart approach IMO, regardless how good the product is. And Blackberry's U.S. marketing approach becomes even more suspect when one considers that Blackberry needs to rebuild its brand in the eyes of many U.S. consumers and corporations.

[BThunderW]

Just because a company is barely turning a profit doesn't mean they're not hemorrhaging money. And right now with the launch and advertising campaign, they absolutely are. Since even Thorsten said they expect to spend close to $900 million on the launch. If that isn't hemorrhaging I don't know what is.

Ahhhhh, company with $2B in Free Cash Flow each yeat, no debt and billions in cash is not hemorrhaging anything. this lie has to stop being repeated.

Sorry, but if there is one lie about RIM that I hate it is this. Sadly, most people (even "analysts") don't know that earnings means nothing and free cash flow si what actually matters.

[Skeevecr]

Just because a company is barely turning a profit doesn't mean they're not hemorrhaging money. And right now with the launch and advertising campaign, they absolutely are. Since even Thorsten said they expect to spend close to $900 million on the launch. If that isn't hemorrhaging I don't know what is.

Other than for people trying to troll, that would be spending money to support a launch of a new platform and not hemorraghing money, also that 900m figure includes building up inventory so providing they sell, the actual costs are nowhere near that figure.

[JerBru]

Companies exist to make money.
As a business person if I was releasing a new product I would go to my most lucrative market first to generate immediate revenue. This includes Canada, UK, India etc.
The US is hostile to non US companies and see BB as a legitimate threat. This technology is amazing and innovative.
Get some momentum going and revenue and then the next market.
Good Business Plan.

[pythons]

The U.S. has been more critical of RIM the last few years than any other market RIM is in....
...The Device simply isn' ready for the US Market and I would guess it's the App gap issue.
....Rim needs all the big name Apps and they need to make sure those apps STAY on the device.

We don't need another HULU stunt like the playbook had ( advertising the device with hulu ).....
...Then right after release hulu is gone - RIM can't afford any more of those types of things.

[edu3110]

US has been brutal on RIM regarding the BlackBerry. The demand seems low compared to other countries. BlackBerry is selling in regions first where they know they will get good sales. They absolutely have to stop hemorrhaging money and having good sales will bode well for future of the company. Look at it this way, by the time Z10 hits US, it'll have more apps and perhaps even some OS improvements.

I totally agree. I was really upset at the beginning with a March release, but after a couple of days and a lot of topics here in crackberry about OS improvement, I'm glad we have a March release. In addition, I also think that RIM didn't want to release a product here in the US without top apps like Skype (we already know that is coming), Instagram and Netflix.

[vespajet]

What's the deal with the slow release of the Z10 in the US?

That country seems to be increasingly suffering from free market avoidance.

That country? Your comments are off-base and uninformed. Care to provide any sources to back up these outlandish claims? If you can't, then you're nothing but a TROLL!

[lnichols]

Given that they are already sold out or have very little inventory left in the UK from a lot of posts here on CrackBerry in the first weekend, and I bet we'll see Canada sold out quickly too, that would imply more that Blackberry weren't able to produce enough product to cover initial demand, or chose to go way conservative on initial product runs, even without the US launch. So even though people say it is the US Carriers slow testing, US protectionism (yes all those Chinese made iPads, iPhones, and Android devices are providing a boom to US manufacturing base), FCC (even though they have approved two of the phones already), or whatever other tin foil hat theory of the day is thrown out, it is doubtful that BlackBerry has enough product manufactured to sell to meet even early demand for the devices. The US Carriers may have minimum inventory level for a device before they will launch it. Look at the T-Mobile Nexus4 debacle and how they were sold out for a couple months before they could get more. People don't blame the OS Maker or Handset for lack of product, they blame the point of sale, the Carrier for the lack of product. RIM probably went conservative on manufacturing to make sure they didn't have another PlayBook and BBOS7 glut of inventory that they couldn't move if BB10 wasn't successful.