In an aggressive bid to turn its fortunes around, BlackBerry officially announced the anticipated BlackBerry Z10 smartphone.
Formerly known as Research in Motion, CEO Thorsten Heins said that the Canadian company is abandoning the name it has used since its inception in 1985. From now on, it would be known simply as BlackBerry.
"We have reinvented the company, and we want to represent this in our brand," said Heins at Wednesday's press conference. "One brand. One promise. Our customers use a BlackBerry, our employees work for BlackBerry, and our shareholders are owners of BlackBerry."
"We have transformed ourselves inside and out, and we have defined our vision ... which makes today the perfect time for another big announcement I want to share."
Although the big announcement wasn't much of a surprise - nearly everyone interested in smartphones has known about the Z10 for a while now - it's definitely an important one for BlackBerry.
The Z10 is BlackBerry's first touch-oriented device. The signature keyboard is gone (though it remains on a separate model, the Q10, if you really want it), replaced with a generous 4.2-inch screen and 1280 x 768p display. Powering the phone is a 1.5GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 Plus, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage, and a removable 1,800mAh battery.
Canadian and UK shoppers will have a chance to buy the Z10 later this week, but according to the Wall Street Journal, U.S. customers will have to wait until mid-March before picking it up.
While the wait is risky considering it will be launching near the expected release of Samsung's new Galaxy phone, the good news is that all four major U.S. phone carriers - Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and T-Mobile - will stock the device. Verizon also confirmed it will sell the Z10 in black or white (white being a Verizon exclusive) for $199 with a contract.
Along with the phone hardware, BlackBerry touted over 70,000 apps and games available at launch, including Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn integration in the operating system itself.
The BlackBerry Z10 marks a critical moment in the company's history. Fierce competition from Apple, Samsung, and the plethora of Android-based smartphones has taken a heavy toll, and it's hoping its newest offering will do more than succeed; it needs to bring a once-dominant force in the mobile world back from the brink of irrelevance.
"We have definitely been on a journey of transformation, a journey to not only transform our business and our brand, but one which I truly believe will transform mobile communications into true mobile computing," said Heins.
Only time will tell if Heins is right, but the initial reaction hasn't been ideal. The company's share price saw an initial bump as the Z10 was revealed, but since then BlackBerry's stock has tumbled downward 7 percent.
