BlackBerry launched its latest smartphone, BlackBerry Z10, which has already made a full appearance in Canada, UK and other parts of the world, and now the handset has started retailing in the U.S. as well. It's barely been a week since the Verizon version of the smartphone made its appearance and the handset has already seen a price-cut in the U.S.
Online retailers Walmart and Amazon have reduced the price of the BlackBerry Z10 below the price at which Verizon is selling the handset.
Verizon is selling the BlackBerry Z10 for $199.99 on a two-year contract. You can buy the Verizon version of the handset for $139.99 from Walmart and for $149.99 from Amazon Wireless, both on a two-year contract.
This is not the first time that the BlackBerry Z10 has seen a price reduction. Recently, Canadian carriers Rogers and Virgin have reduced the price of the BlackBerry Z10 to $99.99 and Bell has reduced the price of the handset to $99.95 on a three-year contract. Originally, Rogers priced the handset at $149.99 on a three-year contract.
"In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch day in our history in Canada," said Thorsten Heins, president and CEO of BlackBerry. "In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone."
BlackBerry recently announced that the BlackBerry Z10 has sold 1 million units globally and the all-touch smartphone is doing well in many markets. However, the price cut in major markets tells a different story.
The BlackBerry Z10 packs in top-end features like a 4.2-inch display with 1280 x 768 resolution, and 356 ppi. The handset is equipped with an 8-megapixel rear-facing camera and has 16GB of internal storage. The Z10 is available in either black or white.
We will have to wait and see if the BlackBerry Z10 is able to keep pace with the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One. It is anybody's guess whether the handset will see a price reduction on other U.S. carriers as well.
