NEW YORK, March 8 (Reuters) - T-Mobile USA, the fourthbiggest U.S. mobile service provider, said on Friday that itwould start selling the highly anticipated and much delayedBlackBerry Z10 touchscreen smartphone to its business customerson March 11.
The U.S. unit of Deutsche Telekom said businesscustomers could get delivery of the device by the end of nextweek. It declined to give a date for the consumer launch exceptto say that it would be before the end of March.
BlackBerry, formerly known as Research In Motion,already sells the device in more than 20 countries but itsreception in the United States, its former stronghold market, isseen as a key step. However, U.S. consumers have had to waitmuch longer for the device than other countries like Britain.
Bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc declined to reveal their Z10 launch dates on Friday and Canada's BlackBerry declined comment.
BlackBerry, a one-time smartphone pioneer, has bled marketshare to the likes of Apple's iPhone, as well asSamsung's Galaxy product line and other devicespowered by Google Inc's market-leading Androidoperating system.
In a make-or-break move to regain market share and return toprofit, BlackBerry introduced the new smartphone to much fanfarein January. A more traditional BlackBerry with a physicalkeyboard will go on sale next month.
Vodafone (VOD)