You’ll have to wait just a little longer for this comeback-Berry.
BlackBerry’s last hope to maintain mobile relevance won’t hit US stores until March — still weeks away for a device that has faced many delays.
Not exactly the best way to ignite marketing momentum, it would seem.
Executives of the smartphone maker brought their roadshow to New York City yesterday, and showed off two new phones designed to reinvigorate the flagging brand.
The phones — one with a classic BlackBerry qwerty keyboard and the other with an iPhone-like screen — run on a brand new BB10 operating system more than two years in the making.
AP
BlackBerry unveiled two long-awaited smartphones yesterday, and here is how one model, the Z10 (above), stacks up against the iPhone 5.
During that time, the company fell from controlling about 20 percent of the worldwide mobile market to less than 5 percent, according to IDC.
With its full touch screen, the Z10 model, due in March, is BlackBerry’s answer to the iPhone.
The Q10 — due sometime after March — keeps the traditional keyboard experience that users mostly associate with BlackBerry.
“They’re trying, and they have a shot with a good product launch,” said analyst Colin Gillis of BGC Partners. “I just wish you could buy it in the US tomorrow — but you can’t.”
Wall Street and wireless carriers — hoping for a third viable alternative to Apple and Android phones — saw shares in the BlackBerry maker jump 4.4 percent as their 10 a.m. unveiling approached.
As CEO Thorsten Heins began to show off the phones, the shares turned around and were down 4 percent.
So much for instant reaction. Hours later, at the close, shares of Research in Motion — which will change its corporate name to BlackBerry — were down 12 percent, to $13.78.
Still, the Z10 received some good reviews and instilled some hope that BlackBerry could maintain its No. 3 smartphone position.
BlackBerry, to be sure, still has 79 million users.
At yesterday’s event, some of the brand’s most faithful customers, developers and employees were on hand for the launch — but even they were not ready to declare the company reborn.
A BlackBerry distributor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said everyone from carriers to consumers was concerned that the latest mobile devices were too late to draw back users who have moved on to iPhones or Google Android phones.
In most areas, with its touch experience, 70,000 apps, and access to movies and music, the Z10 puts BlackBerry back in the conversation.
And in at least some areas, the Z10 moves the conversation forward, with easy multitasking allowing users to swipe from one action to the next and back.
The touch keyboard won praise from critics, and the Near Field Communications chip allows for some new ways to share content with other BlackBerry 10 users.
“The keyboard is the No. 1 attribute for a lot of people, but the Q10 model — when is that available, April?” Gillis said.
By then talk will turn to Google’s latest Android and new iPhones, Gillis said.
gsloane@nypost.com
