Hasta La Gadget!

I reported last week that BlackBerry had officially responded to Detwiler Fenton analyst Jeff Johnston’s claim that Z10 return rates in the U.S. were exceeding sales. The company rubbished these reports as completely false and said that Z10 return rates aren’t abnormally high, rather they’re in line with the rates for other premium smartphones in the market. Apparently the company was furious about these claims and said that it would ask regulators in both the U.S. and Canada to investigate. BlackBerry’s Chief Legal Officer even chimed in, saying that the claims were “materially false and misleading” and that they were deliberately made for the purpose of influencing the markets.

Verizon has backed up BlackBerry’s claim that Z10 rates aren’t astronomically high. The carrier said in a statement that after 14 days since its launch the quality performance has been in line with their other smartphone launches. BlackBerry said that it would present its formal request to U.S. and Canadian regulators in the next several days. While the entire analyst debacle can not be construed as an attempt to manipulate stock, which is something that the SEC is not too fond of, it’ll no doubt be interesting to see what results the investigation turns up.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: iPhone 5S Rumored To Feature 12MP Camera, Facebook Reportedly In Talks With Apple And Microsoft About Porting Facebook Home [Rumor],

Over the past couple of months there has been a lot of speculation about the release date of BlackBerry Q10. The new BlackBerry 10 devices were announced by the ailing Canadian manufacturer back in January. The Z10 became immediately available in UK and Canada after launch, though the company did not reveal when exactly it would starting shipping Q10. A new rumor suggests that the device will begin shipping on the 30th of April in Canada, the rumor is based on an allegedly leaked memo from Rogers, a major Canadian carrier.

The BlackBerry Q10 is similar to the Z10, major difference being the full QWERTY keyboard that is much loved by BlackBerry enthusiasts. The internal specifications are the same, though the Q10 does come with a bigger 2,100 mAh battery as opposed to the Z10′s 1,800 mAh battery. The internal memo pictured above clearly shows that Rogers will release Q10 on April 30. As of now it is presumed that all other Canadian carriers will release the device on this very same day. No word as yet on when the Q10 will be coming over to the U.S.

[Image via mobilesyrup]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Babel Could Support Google Voice , Google Chrome for iOS Offers Full-Screen Browsing, Web Page Printing In Update,

Red might be the limited edition color of choice for the BlackBerry Z10, but how would you feel about a blue one? That’s exactly what rapper (and avid BB10 fan) Lil ‘E has flourished to his Twitter followers. Looking just as bright as the developer-only red version, we can’t quite make out whether we’re dealing with an (admittedly eye-catching) customized handset or a special gift to one of the company’s biggest fans. We’ve reached out to BlackBerry to check, but until we hear back, there’s another fuzzy shot to ogle after the break.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, Blackberry

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Via: Ubergizmo

Source: @BTBREPRESENTA (Twitter)

You might say the day is never really done in consumer technology news. Your workday, however, hopefully draws to a close at some point. This is the Daily Roundup on Engadget, a quick peek back at the top headlines for the past 24 hours — all handpicked by the editors here at the site. Click on through the break, and enjoy.

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BlackBerry delivered one of the world’s most mysterious press releases a short time ago when it revealed that it had sold a cool 1 million BB10 devices to an unnamed partner, but now it looks like some sleuthing has turned up the real client. AllThingsD and Detwiler Fenton both report that the likely source of the order was Brightstar, an international distribution company that counts Verizon, along with carriers around the world as its partners.

Brightstar is an established BlackBerry customer, and distributes handsets from the Waterloo manufacturer in some of its strongest markets, including in countries like Malaysia where BlackBerry retains very high popularity. Brightstar’s order (if indeed this is the client in question) would indeed be the largest ever single order of BlackBerry devices, but it’s also potentially a way for companies like Verizon to make a sizable bet on the company’s brand new OS and hardware, without taking on all the risk for such an order itself.

Detwiler Fenton says that the move indicates “Verizon doesn’t believe this well be a strong seller since it normally tries to allocate hot product on its own,” and that using Brightstar means it will spread out some of the responsibility and potential reward that comes with placing inventory in big-box retail locations like Best Buy, in exchange for the security of not being left solely on the hook should things go south. The U.S. launch of BlackBerry 10 happened last Friday, and while not all the cards are on the table, there’s still some early reason to believe things didn’t go amazingly well.

BlackBerry has its earnings coming up this week on Thursday, but sales of BB10 devices in the U.S. won’t be included in or influence the results. Still, stock price is down today after last weekend’s launch failed to garner the kind of high-profile success and buzz associated with new hardware from Apple or Samsung.

That million is still a big number, and a sizable order. But if Detwiler Fenton is accurate in its report and this involved carriers like Verizon placing an order through their distribution partner, it’s a lot less significant than were it to go to a single buyer. We’ve contacted RIM for comment, but they did not respond by time of publication.