As many of you may know the next generation BlackBerry Z10 has finally made its way into the USA. AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon are among the first to carry the device here in the States. Today was T-Mobile’s opening day for public sale and its exciting to report that I had a bit of a struggle to find an outlet which had them in stock ready for sale. In my area there are about 8 T-Mobile stores with 2 being indirect dealers. Out of those 8 only 4 stores had units for sale so I dashed to the nearest store to purchase the Z10.Each of the 8 outlets only received roughly 2 devices per store along with 3 different cases to choose from. I asked why so little devices and according to the sales rep, its all BlackBerry sent. I’m sure it has to do with market size and demand but I really think BlackBerry needs to send more than 2 devices to each store regardless of market size. The other 4 stores who had not received their devices yet did not have any because their shipment had not been delivered. A few stores let me know their shipment arrived between 3:00 4:00 CST but come on, I was not going to wait that long. Each of the 4 stores who had devices had received 2 devices and 1 store had completely sold out by noon. Now mind you, Isaak picked up his Z10 in San Antonio (2 hours away from me) and also encountered a few stores which were sold out already or had 2 at the most. Hopefully we’ll see more and more devices ship out as the demand rises, which should because BlackBerry 10 is fiercely competitive in a market-driven business.
The sales rep assisted me in activating the micro SIM at the store so feel free to ask for help if you think you’ll need it. Inside the box contains a couple of manuals and product information pamphlets, your charging cable and the charging travel adapter. No headphones, no cleaning cloth and no courtesy sleeve or case as we’re used to seeing from BlackBerry. Nevermind that the device is beautiful. The front of the phone sports a front facing camera and the iconic led indicator on the top right. On the bottom of the device above the lip is the BlackBerry logo almost instantaneous recognizable. I like how the device is all black without the carrier mark in the front. Instead, you’ll see the carrier marking on the bottom lower back door cover in a light colored paint. Along with the carrier mark you get the BlackBerry BB logo in chrome right smack in the middle and your rear facing camera and flash light on the upper left corner. Well there you have it. Keep it locked to BlackBerry Empire for more z10 Exclusives!