New BlackBerry won't be released in US until March

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NEW YORK (AP) — Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled new, versatile BlackBerrys after excruciating delays allowed Apple, Samsung and others to build commanding leads in an industry that is redefining society. But the first phone won't come out in the United States until March, and one with a physical keyboard will take at least a month longer.

The stock fell 12 percent after Wednesday's kickoff, despite mostly positive reviews about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system. There's concern the phone isn't coming out sooner, and there's worry BlackBerry 10's advances won't be enough to turn the company around.

In a move underscoring the stakes riding on its make-or-break product lineup, RIM used the occasion to announce that it is changing the company's name to BlackBerry. It's a pioneering brand that lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset expectations for what a smartphone should do.

Pioneered in 1999, BlackBerry became a game-changing breakthrough in personal connectedness. It changed the culture by allowing on-the-go business people to access wireless email. President Barack Obama couldn't bear to part with his BlackBerry. Oprah Winfrey declared it one of her "favorite things." It was so addictive at times that it was nicknamed "the CrackBerry."

As the BlackBerry began to cross over to consumers, rivals came out with a new generation of phones that could do more than just email and messaging, starting with the iPhone and followed by devices running Google's Android system. Suddenly, the BlackBerry looked ancient.


CEO Thorsten Heins, who one year ago replaced longtime executives who had presided over BlackBerry's fall, formally unveiled the much-delayed smartphones and software Wednesday in New York. Simultaneous events were held in Toronto, London, Paris, Dubai, Johannesburg, New Delhi and Jakarta, Indonesia.

The first device in the new crop of revamped BlackBerrys will be the Z10 — pronounced "zee-10" in the U.S. and "zed-10" elsewhere. As RIM previously disclosed, it will have only a touch-screen keyboard, like Apple Inc.'s trend-setting iPhone and most phones running Android, including Samsung Electronic Co.'s popular Galaxy line. Although the Z10 will go on sale Thursday in the U.K. and next Tuesday in Canada, it won't be available in the U.S. until March.

The Q10 will follow and will have a physical keyboard, a feature that has kept BlackBerry users loyal over the years because it makes typing easier. RIM said the Q10 will start going on sale on some global carriers in April, but it couldn't say when U.S. carriers will have it.








"The idea that we are launching BlackBerry 10 just to upgrade the existing physical keyboard customer base is wrong," Boulben said in an interview. "The new platform we are introducing will have much wider appeal on the market. It's for all the people looking for the next generation in smartphone experience."

But RIM won't abandon physical keyboards. The Q10 will have a square screen and sport a 35-key physical keyboard with a back light, with language-specific arrangements such as QWERTY and AZERTY depending on the market. It's meant to cater to people who still prefer that over a touch screen.

The touch-screen keyboard itself promises such improvements as learning a user's writing style and suggesting words and phrases to complete, going beyond typo corrections offered by rivals.

The new BlackBerrys also are supposed to run faster and enable people to separate their professional and personal lives with a feature called Balance. They also promise to let people easily switch between multiple applications by swiping on the screen. The new BlackBerrys won't have a home button, which is fundamental to the iPhone.




"It is the most challenging year of my career," said Heins, whose anniversary leading the company occurred last week. "It is also the most exhilarating and exciting one."


"We'll see if they can reclaim their glory," Gillis said. "My sense is that it will be a phone that everyone says good things about but not as many people buy."


That said, RIM won't need a knockout. As smartphone sales grow overall, RIM can still succeed with the BlackBerry 10 without requiring iPhone and Android users to switch.


RIM said it plans to launch BlackBerry 10 with more than 70,000 apps, and with 100,000 apps by the time it comes to the U.S. But some of those were developed for RIM's PlayBook tablet, first released in 2011, and weren't necessarily adapted to run on the BlackBerry 10. In addition, popular services such as Instagram and Netflix won't have apps on BlackBerry 10.


