I live in Canada and feel the pain of a release date of the BlackBerry 10 that is only 6 days after launch. I cannot imagine the reaction of the U.S. BlackBerry fans who would have wanted to see the launch and release dates much, much closer than a month apart, Especially since the release date in the UK was www.techradar.com/us/news/phone-and-communications/mobile-phones/blackberry-z10-uk-release-date-confirmed-1128416
I searched the internet for an explanation and found the following interview with Thorsten Heins:
http://www.technobuffalo.com/2013/01/31/blackberry-ceo-explains-u-s-delay/
“Carriers are very professional organizations, they know how to separate [testing and pricing],” he explained. “They know if they leverage the lab entry process vs. pricing they lose, because they’ll be late to market. The pricing negotiations as far as I know from my team are settled already. It’s purely the testing procedure. They do the best they can. Would I have loved to see it earlier? Absolutely. Make no mistake everyone’s trying to pull the date in—carriers and us collectively.”
The article goes on to ask the question of why the U.S. Carriers tend to delay other updates as well.
Hopefully this insight will make for a calmer atmosphere during the lead up to March. If you really want to get one now you can head over to eBay. Unlocked Z10’s are going for a mere $1400!
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p5197.m570.l1313&_nkw=Z10&_sacat=0&_from=R40