Speculation on Why BlackBerry 10 Launched in the UK First

BlackBerry Z10

I was truly surprised when I learned that the UK would be getting the BlackBerry Z10 the DAY after launch. I thought if RIM could pull that off anywhere it would be in Canada. I heard that the reason it takes longer for the US compared to Canada is that carriers in Canada have about 2,000 checkpoints to test and US carriers have about 20,000 in comparison. CNET UK had and interesting wrap up of a few reasons as to why the UK received the launch of BlackBerry 10 first.

Here is a quick recap of the reasons they have heard:

  • Francisco Jeronimo, research manager for European Mobile Devices at IDC, is that the U.K. is the biggest BlackBerry market in the world.
  • BlackBerry senior VP Andrew Bocking echoed this point: "The U.K. has been a key market for us for so long. We have over 8 million BlackBerry users today in the U.K. and we are very excited for them to be on the leading edge getting access to BB10 on the Z10."
  • Ian Fogg, analyst for IHS, made the point that a successful launch in the U.K. could have more global impact than a U.S. launch, as the owners of U.K. carriers are present in other countries, whereas the U.S. carriers are more self-contained.

Those are some pretty compelling reasons but I think the real reason was probably because the UK carriers were able to get the product out the door THE DAY AFTER LAUNCH. CNET also said that he heard from a few analysts that they are VERY impressed with how fast BlackBerry 10 is getting out the door. Jeronimo stated that:

"I don’t remember the last time a major vendor launched a flagship device and made it available in stores the day after. BlackBerry probably didn’t get the same support in the USA and therefore decided to launch it later."

Let us know if you hear of any other compelling reasons why the UK got first dibs on the BlackBerry Z10!

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