The BlackBerry Z10 was announced last week and is slated to be officially launched in India in the near future. However, being available in the UK means the device will definitely sneak into the grey market.
We have learnt from our sources that the Z10 is available in the grey market and comes with an appropriately stratospheric price tag. We spoke to three grey market retailers and at least two of them have confirmed selling units of the Z10. They informed us that more handsets will be in stock tomorrow and they will each cost Rs 80,000, excluding bill and warranty. In fact, the price has only increased since the handset first became available. Yesterday, the retailers claimed to have sold phones for Rs 75,000. Another retailer we spoke to confirmed availability of new stock at his shop from Friday onwards.
A handsome looker, but will you fork out Rs 80,000 for it?
Of course, these prices are in line with prices of other highly-anticipated handsets that haven’t been released in India. The Nexus 4, which was launched last year internationally, has yet to be seen on Indian shores. On eBay.in, the handset is available from Rs 32,000 onwards for the 8GB model and the price goes all the way up to Rs 49,000 for the 16GB version. Considering the Nexus 4’s original price ($299 and $349), this is a more than twice the price.
Even when the iPhone 5 hadn’t officially entered India, its price was a mind-boggling Rs 1 lakhfor the 64GB model, while the 16GB sold for 76,000 and the 32GB version for Rs 85,000. This was during the peak popularity of the device. Based on these numbers and depending on supply, the Z10 might see a further jump in price before coming down again closer to the official launch of the device. When official, the device could still end up with an expensive price tag. It is expected toretail close to Rs 45,000.
Clearly, BlackBerry fans are willing to pay a very high price to get a taste of the new BlackBerry 10 OS. In UK, the handset has been available through official channels since February 1 and in the US, eBay sellers have been selling the Z10 for as high as $1,500, which is about the same price as India.
The BlackBerry Z10 was announced on January 30 at an event in New York. It is the first handset by the company to run the BlackBerry 10 OS.
Here is a quick look at some of the highlights of the Z10:
- 4.2-inch screen with a resolution of 1280 x 768
- LTE, 3G, EDGE, Wi-Fi, NFC
- GPS with A-GPS support
- Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP
- 8 megapixel AF camera with 1080p recording; 2 megapixel front facing camera with 720p recording
- 16GB internal memory, expandable up to 64GB via microSD
- MicroHDMI for AV out
The phone is powered by a dual-core 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 processor and comes with 2GB of RAM. The BlackBerry Z10 will be kept powered on by an 1800mAh battery.
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