The much awaited BlackBerry Z10 to be on sale next month

The much anticipated BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, which is powered by the new BlackBerry 10 platform, will be available for sale early next month.

The smart phone will first be available for Maxis subscriber starting March 9, 2013, with a pre-registration starting tomorrow (Thursday).

As for Celcom and DiGi subscribers, they would be able to purchase the touch-screen phone April 8 onwards.

The BlackBerry Z10, which features a 1.5 Ghz dual core processor with 2GB of RAM, also comes with 16GB of internal storage, and an expandable memory card slot that supports up to 64GB cards.

It also has a micro HDMI out port for presentations, and advanced sensors such as NFC (near field communications) to support mobile payments and the exchange of information with a tap of the smartphone.

The new BlackBerry got mixed reviews as the Canadian-based smartphone maker launched its bid for a comeback, while diehard "Crackberry" addicts cheered the new lineup.

The new smartphone however faces an uphill battle winning back corporate and government users who helped spawn the "crackberry" culture, analysts say.

While BlackBerry helped create a culture of mobile users glued to smartphones nearly a decade ago, many of those customers have since moved on to Apple or Android.

To find out more on what's BlackBerry's ambition on this new device, please read:

BlackBerry aims to be the number 2 player in Malaysia by year end