Much awaited new Blackberry smartphone arrives at Canadian retailers

TORONTO - Canadians who have clung to their aging BlackBerrys finally have an upgrade.

The company behind the once-dominant smartphone debuts its new touchscreen device — the BlackBerry Z10 — today in stores across the country.

The move comes after several delays left some longtime BlackBerry fans sticking with their older phones or switching to a competitor's phone.

Some analysts have been concerned that BlackBerry's launch came too late to recover the lustre of its name.

But anecdotes from the UK, where the phone launched last week, suggest the new BlackBerry is selling at a steady pace.

Fans of the phone's physical keyboard will have to wait awhile longer though — the new keypad version of the device won't launch until sometime in April.

The Z10 is expected to typically sell for $150 on a three-year contract. Koodo is selling it without a contract for $550. It isn't expected to be released in the U.S. until March.

While the physical keyboard has long been an essential and beloved tool of so-called CrackBerry addicts, the move to release the touchscreen first was signalled by the company last spring.

The revamped models, which are powered by a whole new operating system, are widely seen as a make-or-break product for the company. After two major delays some in the technology sector had grown skeptical over whether the former Research In Motion (TSX:BB) would survive long enough in its current form to get the phones to the market.

The BlackBerry 10 devices were originally due for release last year but chief executive Thorsten Heins decided they still weren't ready for the public, even though they had already been delayed once before.

It was one of the difficult decisions the CEO had to make when he took over the top position last January from then co-CEOs Jim Balsillie and Mike Lazaridis. He also dug deep into the company's operations to cut costs, which included closing manufacturing facilities and making thousands of job cuts.

After years of dominating the smartphone industry, RIM had become a punching bag for its competitors. Apple's iPhone and numerous Android devices have stolen away a significant portion of the BlackBerry company's marketshare in North America and Europe with flashier touchscreen devices.