Sprint has confirmed to Bloomberg that it will not be offering Sprint customers the BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry's latest flagship smartphone. But BlackBerry needs as many carriers as possible to sell its new BlackBerry 10 smartphones, if it wants to remain in business.
The BlackBerry Z10 went on sale the day after it was announced in some countries but was delayed in the U.S due to carrier testing. BlackBerry has already announced Verizon, AT&T and T-Mobile will be carrying the BlackBerry Z10, which is expected to become available towards the end of March. Sprint was noticeably absent on the list of carriers in the U.S. to offer the BlackBerry Z10 and we now know why.
Sprint spokesman, Mark Elliot told Bloomberg that Sprint has decided to wait until BlackBerry releases the BlackBerry Q10, which features the QWERTY-equipped physical keyboard the company is known for.
"We aren't saying there's anything different about our customers, we think our customers will be happy with the QWERTY keyboard and touch screen on the Q10," Elliot told Bloomberg.
It seems that Sprint feels the BlackBerry Q10 is a much more desirable smartphone because it uses the physical QWERTY keyboard BlackBerry is known for, while also running BlackBerry 10, the company's next-generation operating system.
Sprint is not alone in its views; when BlackBerry announced the BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 many wondered why BlackBerry wasn't going to launch the smartphone that is typically much more popular with BlackBerry owners. BlackBerry has never seen much success with any of its all touch smartphones, including the BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Torch.
It's very clear that BlackBerry users love their smartphones to have a physical QWERTY keyboard and Sprint knows that too, so it will not be joining the BlackBerry Z10 party. BlackBerry announced that the Q10 is expected to be released in April. Don't count on that being a U.S. release though, as Verizon announced last week it would not offer the Q10 until mid-summer.
(Edited by Lois Heyman)
