Blackberry, Cell Phone | featured news

So many consumers are opting to buy older iPhone models that some analysts wonder whether Apple has lost its ability to create new versions that dazzle. How strange to think that Vicki Macchiavello's decision to buy an iPhone after years of using a BlackBerry could be bad news for Apple.

The launch of the BlackBerry (BBRY) Z10 didn't go as well as some were expecting. That has caused several Wall Street analysts to rethink their positions, with one research firm even downgrading the name.

With the BlackBerry Z10 poised to make its U.S. debut later this week, it's comments from CEO Thorston Heins about the iPhone that have generated buzz. In an interview with the Australian Financial Review, Heins discussed the importance of staying on top of smartphone advancements, citing Apple as an example.

The BlackBerry (NASDAQ:BBRY)/(TSE:BB) Z10 is finally available for U.S. pre-order—on T-Mobile, at least. AT&T’s debut is tomorrow; Verizon’s next month, probably. On the one hand, it could be a case of “too little, too late” for the Canadian smartphone maker (formerly Research In Motion).

A modern BlackBerry with a physical keyboard might not arrive in the U.S. until May or June, a month or two behind other parts of the world, the chief executive of the smartphone maker suggested in an interview....

Early sales of the BlackBerry Z10 phone are off to a "strong start," Jefferies analyst Peter Misek asserted in a research note this morning.

After lengthy delays, Research In Motion Ltd. unveiled its first two phones with the new BlackBerry 10 system. The Q10 will have a physical keyboard, while the Z10 has only a touch-screen keyboard. RIM also announced a company name change to BlackBerry to maintain a single brand.

The long-awaited smartphone has been designed to retain, and bring back, the corporate users that once propelled RIM to success.

The maker of the BlackBerry smartphone is promising a speedy browser, a superb typing experience and the ability to keep work and personal identities separate on the same phone, the fruit of a crucial, long-overdue makeover for the Canadian company....

The phone once coveted by the elite and the powerful is becoming an object of ridicule as Androids and iPhones corner the smartphone market.