There was also that report from the UK phone retailer who said that the Z10 (the new BB10 phone) was outselling the SGIII and the Iphone5.
Someone did a calculation that if you all the stores in the UK and Canada just sell 1 phone a day till the end of march, they will beat the 300,000 sales quantity.

Which system is better at taking "selfies", pictures of weed and Thai food and uploading them to instagram?

I bought one in London on Friday, Vodafone. Haven't had a BB since my company-issued 7250 (yes, that long ago). This new thingy is really nice. I like. Especially the browser, text and mail service, which is what I use a phone for, oh, and to make calls.

I suspect designers do not like you call it a "thingy." lol.

is it 'da bomb ? (yeh thats worn out too.) how 'bout Bentley of car phones ?

I like it too Snowman...it's the core features and functions that set it ahead, not the apps. Best keyboard, best UI, best multitasking, best one hand use, best browser, best mail and text hub, best security, best multi-profile, and last but not least, best phone.

Does it include tethering?

What Gen said. Tethering would be a big deal for me also.

Yes the settings options include tethering to one device by bluetooth or usb cable. It's also got wifi hub setting, nfc, and vpn settings, along with the regular...

Note the consumer devices are no longer using BIS data compression though, so you've got to make sure your plan is appropriate to your data uses...

No Wifi tether? Or is Wifi Hub = tether?

I prefer bluetooth myself (MUCH better battery consumption profile!) but there will be people who disagree with that I suspect.

I meant to say it's got an option for wifi hotspot in my above post...can connect one or multiple devices via wifi to your phone's LTE connection.

Cool.

That it can do Bluetooth is even better, IMHO -- most Android devices CANNOT, and when you're power-constrained (e.g. not in your car) this suddenly becomes important as an open WiFi hotspot chews battery at an utterly prodigious rate.

The day my iphone recognized but refused to support (device not supported error) my PlayBook via bluetooth tether is the day I decided to ditch Apple for good. Everything else with the bluetooth tether option could connect to the Playbook just fine. I assume it was intentional on Apple's part.

The battery life of z10 is only slightly better than iphone5 or SG3 but if you go for the q10 it will be a LOT better. With z10 it's a good full day of use, but you still have to charge every night. They make a beautiful little portable spare battery / charger unit that can plug into the phone in series (for charging 2 batteries at once) and then if you ever run out you can hot swap the batteries or plug it in as a short term booster. Good for travel.

BGR:BlackBerry coup confirmed: iPhone, Android users make up half of Z10 sales in Canada, one-third in UK.

10:15 AM

BlackBerry (BBRY) is at the start of a very long haul as the struggling smartphone maker attempts to stage a comeback for the ages. Early sales of the company’s first next-generation BlackBerry 10 smartphone appeared strong, but a series of subsequent claims suggested limited supply was responsible for many of the BlackBerry Z10 stock-outs being reported in the United Kingdom and Canada. We now know Z10 sales to date are likely nothing to scoff at, however — BlackBerry’s Z10 is outselling the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy S III at a major Canadian retailer — and BGR has confirmed an even more important indicator of BlackBerry’s early success: Half of BlackBerry Z10 sales in Canada and one-third of UK sales have been made to users coming from other platforms.

CIBC analyst Todd Coupland reported last month that 50% of pre-registration for the Z10 in Canada came from users who did not already own BlackBerry devices. Interest doesn’t always translate to sales though, and it was unclear if BlackBerry would be able to get these iPhone and Android users to commit to the Z10 following its release.

BGR has now learned from multiple trusted sources that BlackBerry has indeed managed to pull off the coup it so desperately needed. Several high-level BlackBerry executives have confirmed internally that half of all BlackBerry Z10 sales in Canada have been made to new customers coming from other platforms.

What’s more, one-third of Z10 sales in the UK, another key market for BlackBerry, have been made to customers who did not already own BlackBerry smartphones.

BlackBerry declined to comment.

Early reviewers — including us here at BGR — worried that while BlackBerry 10 showed great promise and the Z10 was a terrific early effort, the new operating system didn’t offer any compelling differentiation that might draw users away from the iPhone and Android smartphones. If early performance in these two key markets is any indication, however, BlackBerry’s new platform may be a bigger draw than we expected.

http://bgr.com/2013/03/01/blackberry-z10....

ALSO.....from BGR

Chalk up another potentially impressive customer win for BlackBerry (BBRY). German site AreaMobile claims that German chancellor Angela Merkel and “other secret sources in ministries and federal agencies” will use the Z10 due to its impressive security features that put it a cut above rival devices from Apple (AAPL) and Samsung (005930). AreaMobile says that the Z10 will account for roughly half of the 10,000 secure devices issued to members of the German government, while Samsung’s Galaxy S II and Galaxy S III make up the other half. While reports of Z10 sales have been mixed overall, the consensus seems to be that BlackBerry’s first BlackBerry 10 device is off to a solid start and has succeeded in convincing some iOS and Android users to give the company a second look.