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BB10 goes Down Under - how about another million dollar order?
Fri, 22nd Mar 2013
FYI, this story is more than a year old

BlackBerry launched the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in Australia earlier this week, with the company hoping for another mega smartphone order across the region.

Running on the newly redesigned BB10 platform, the product landed Down Under on Monday, as the company cements it's brand across the region.

“We are confident that Australians will love the new BlackBerry Z10, running on the new BlackBerry 10 platform, offers users something they will have never experienced before,” said Thorsten Heins, President & CEO, BlackBerry, in Australia for the launch.

“This revolutionary new platform continuously adapts to you.

"Every feature, every gesture, and every detail is designed to keep you moving, whether at work or at play.”

Given the finer details of the new release have been examined with a fine tooth comb since the January 30 launch, BlackBerry's recent large smartphone order has been the source of interest, with company shares rising 8% as a result.

The order from unnamed but established partner suggests the BB10 device has been well received, despite having it's contract with the U.S. government opened up to other competitors.

Yet that hasn't fazed Heins and his team, who also announced an application catalogue growth of over 30,000 apps during seven weeks - now totaling 100,000 for the Canadian firm.

"The response to the BlackBerry 10 platform and applications has been outstanding," said Martyn Mallick, vice president, Global Alliances at BlackBerry.

"Top brands and application providers are joining us every day and are seeing the benefits of being early supporters of the new platform.

"We constantly hear from developers that the BlackBerry 10 tools are easy to build with and that we provide opportunities for app differentiation that they do not see on other platforms."

It would appear the facts don't lie, with Amazon Kindle, The Wall Street Journal, Linkedin to name a few already on board, with Viber and Skype expected to follow suit.

The company, in midst of takeover speculation, recently slammed Apple's iOS platform, branding the iPhone old.

The cheeky comments nearly threatened to bite Heins on the ass almost immediately, but rumours of an unsecure BB10 platform proved false despite the strong media coverage.

Taking about the facts and ignoring the bullish*t however, BlackBerry now has over 100,000 apps and a one million order in the bank - is it exciting times or too early to say? Tell us your thoughts below