There’s good news for Australian BlackBerry users, with the Canadian smartphone maker sending out press invites for the official Australian launch event for the smartphone in Sydney on March 18.
The event, scheduled for March 18, will be hosted by BlackBerry Australia’s managing director, Matthew Ball, along with chief executive Thorsten Heins and will also include a panel discussion moderated by ABC host Adam Spencer.
Telstra has already created a landing page where Australian users can express their interest in purchasing a 4G version of the new smartphone.
The Australian event follows the official global launch for the platform in late January, with the first model, the iPhone-like BlackBerry Z10, meeting record demand across the UK and Canada upon its release.
“In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. In fact, it was more than 50% better than any other launch day in our history in Canada,” Heins said following the launch.
“In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone.”
Earlier this month, SmartCompany reported Bernstein analyst Pierre Ferragu and Barclays analyst Jeff Kvaal issued notes following initial retail checks that showed strong demand for the recently released smartphone, which is the first to be based on the BlackBerry 10 platform.
“We have grown more confident in the likely success of the BlackBerry 10 launch, supported by low channel inventories, strong operator support and material pent-up demand,” Ferragu said.
“Our recent store checks suggest that initial sales of the BlackBerry Z10 are off to a solid, if not healthy start in the UK,” Kvaal said.
“We believe BlackBerry’s Z10 is off to a better start than the [Nokia] Lumia 920. The solid initial demand is a positive step in our view, despite the number of challenges that remain.”
Andrew Sadauskas is a former journalist at SmartCompany and a former editor of TechCompany.
