Last week, a leaked screenshot of Best Buy Canada’s stock inventory system showed a possible February 28 release date for a BlackBerry 10 phone, although it wasn’t clear exactly which one. Now, a roadmap of forthcoming hardware for T-Mobile USA has been published and it too shows a BlackBerry 10 device, but the possible street date is a little later.
Instead of late February, T-Mobile has apparently penciled in a phone called the BlackBerry Lisbon for March 27, a month after the Best Buy date and nearly two months after Research in Motion plans to unveil the new operating system and its accompanying hardware.
If you’ve not heard of the BlackBerry Lisbon, it has been rumored for some considerable time, with references to it dating back as far as December 2011. Despite this, little is known about the device, with speculation revolving around it being a variation of the already leaked BlackBerry Z10 or London, as it has also been known. There’s a chance the London is a world phone for all markets, leaving the Lisbon to take care of U.S. GSM networks and a device codenamed Laguna for CDMA carriers.
That BlackBerry 10 phones are headed to T-Mobile soon isn’t a surprise, as the network issued a statement earlier this year saying it is, “Extremely optimistic that it’s going to be a successful product.” T-Mobile joins Verizon and AT&T as North American networks already aboard the BlackBerry 10 train, with Vodafone, O2 and EE all confirmed in the UK too.
Research in Motion has scheduled its global BlackBerry 10 launch for January 30, and an executive for the company has previously indicated the first phones with the new OS would go on sale within 30 days of the event. While this fitted perfectly with Best Buy Canada’s stock computer, if this rumor is correct, it appears T-Mobile may be slightly behind the curve (if you’ll excuse the BlackBerry-themed pun).
