Blackberry Q10 will sell for more than iphone in U.S.

BlackBerry expects to start selling its new Q10 keyboard-equipped model in the U.S. by the end of May for about $249 (U.S.), which is $50 more than Apple Inc.’s top-selling iPhone 5.

AT&T Inc., Verizon Wireless, Sprint Nextel Corp. and T- Mobile USA Inc. — the four largest U.S. carriers — have all confirmed they will sell the phone, said Waterloo, Ont.-based BlackBerry on Wednesday. The suggested $249 price assumes that buyers will sign up for a two-year contract.

The move signals that BlackBerry won’t be competing with Apple on price, even as it tries to claw back market share lost to the iPhone and other smartphones. The iPhone 5 with 16 gigabytes of memory sells for $199.99 with a two-year contract. Pricing the Q10 above that level is probably a deliberate effort to target business users with deep pockets and expense accounts, said Anil Doradla, an analyst at William Blair & Co. in Chicago. “They’ve decided this is not going to be a mass appeal phone, but one targeted at road warriors,” said Doradla, who has a neutral rating on BlackBerry shares. “It’s not the wrong thing to do.” The Q10 is the second phone in BlackBerry’s revamped lineup, following the touch-screen Z10, which sells for $199.99. The company is counting on the newer model to appeal to longtime users who want to stick with a physical keypad, rather than an iPhone-like screen.

Canadian carriers will begin selling the Q10 on May 1. Rogers Communications Inc., BCE Inc. and Telus Corp. plan to sell the phone for $199 (Canadian) on a three-year contract.