So… you’ve been hearing all of this talk about the new BlackBerry Z10, and even though it’s designed to deliver the best touchscreen typing experience, you’re a physical keyboard enthusiast at heart. You’ve been holding out, waiting to get your hands on a shiny new BlackBerry 10 smartphone – and you know the BlackBerry Q10 is just right for you.

You’re not alone! The anticipation is mounting around the world for this highly-anticipated smartphone, and we’re getting one step closer to getting it in your hands.

Today, Carphone Warehouse customers in the United Kingdom will be able to pre-order the BlackBerry Q10 on O2, Orange, T-Mobile, Three, EE and TalkMobile. Plus, the handset will be available for purchase in Carphone Warehouse stores from the end of April. For those of you in other markets, we’ll have details on availability to follow soon. In the mean time head by our global availability tracker for BlackBerry 10 to see where you can pick up a BlackBerry Z10 today!

We showed it off originally on January 30th when we officially launched the BlackBerry 10 platform. There, we showed you some of the amazing capabilities built in to BlackBerry 10, like messaging in the BlackBerry Hub, BlackBerry Balance and BlackBerry Remember. In case you need a refresher – watch this video and prepare to start drooling.

[ YouTube link for mobile viewing ]

Are you a BlackBerry physical keyboard fanatic? Is this the BlackBerry 10 device you’ve been waiting for – let us know in the comments below.

With the increased prevalence of smartphones and tablets becoming a common part of how we share information with our family, friends and co-workers, there is a growing potential for increased risks related to data security and privacy. This isn’t the first time we’ve watched the computing threat landscape evolve. Over the last decade, as more users leveraged the power of personal computers, attackers began focusing on ways to steal users’ data and take control of their computers. Their methods included using vulnerabilities in the software and creating malicious software, known as malware, which is designed to trick a user into installing these programs in order for the attacker to gain control of a user’s system. Now, as we move toward a mobile computing society, we’re seeing that same trend happening across the mobile industry.

One of the significant security concerns facing the mobile industry is how to address the skyrocketing amount of malware on mobile devices. This concern is especially challenging because instead of attackers trying to trick computer users to install malware, attackers have shifted their focus and tactics by offering what appear to be safe apps. They are placing their malicious apps within smartphone app stores and bypassing protections that these app store vendors may have in place to help prevent malware. While most smartphone users have heard of malware, and know about its potential to harm their devices, they don’t expect that any app downloaded from their smartphone’s app store is malicious. As a result, smartphone users may not be as careful or discerning when deciding which third-party apps to download, and these choices can lead to users being vulnerable to potential security and privacy implications associated with these apps.

Every smartphone and tablet vendor uses a different strategy for protecting customers from both malware and privacy concerns, and customers do not typically have insight into how they may or may not be protected from these issues. At BlackBerry, we’re committed to protecting customers and their data, and also to providing greater transparency into the unique level of protection we offer customers.

We recognize that customers want and need access to apps that do not infringe on their privacy or impact their security. With such a significant challenge facing the mobile industry, we determined adding additional layers of protection are crucial to helping protect BlackBerry customers. As part of our comprehensive approach, we are incorporating Trend Micro’s industry-leading anti-malware technology with our current internal, proprietary system for analyzing apps. Through this collaboration, we will use Trend Micro’s suite of app scanning technology to help enhance BlackBerry’s anti-malware capabilities, including industry-leading app analyzing techniques and built-in permission settings on BlackBerry devices. By vetting apps against Trend Micro’s extensive library of known malicious software, we will help ensure both current and new apps submitted to the BlackBerry World storefront are scanned for potential malicious behavior.

When an app is flagged as suspicious during our continuous vetting process, BlackBerry investigates it thoroughly to determine if the app is malicious. If it is not malicious, we examine it for privacy implications by determining if it clearly and adequately informs customers about its behaviors. If and when an application is found that either contains malicious code or may infringe on customers’ privacy, we inform the developer about the issue, remove the app from BlackBerry World and release a corresponding malware or privacy notice to customers. These notices help provide greater transparency to our customers about what actions we are taking to help safeguard their privacy and protect their data as well as offer guidance to customers on what actions they should consider regarding those specific apps.

While there are several approaches to protecting mobile customers from emerging security and privacy concerns, as an industry overall, we need to do a better job of ensuring that customers have the opportunity to make informed decisions about exactly what they are downloading and purchasing on their mobile devices. It is important to remember that attackers are not just focusing on one type of smartphone, and they are continuously refining their methods and abilities with each attempt as well as sharing techniques.

Given that both malware and privacy concerns span across the breadth of the mobile industry, it’s not practical to believe that any one company can thoroughly address these issues on their own. By working with an industry leader, such as Trend Micro, we’re establishing a unique level of protection for BlackBerry customers, and we believe the rest of the industry should also consider working collaboratively in order to address the significant increase in mobile malware and privacy implications associated with third-party apps.

These kinds of questions are leading field service organizations to re-evaluate their mobile tool set. IT departments, looking for ways to standardize technology platforms and reduce mobile infrastructure costs, are exploring the use of BlackBerry® devices in non-traditional environments – like field service operations, where BlackBerry devices often offer a surprisingly close fit at a significantly lower price point. With this premise in mind, industry analyst research firm ABI recently published a detailed whitepaper (commissioned by Research In Motion®) examining the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of traditional ruggedized devices versus BlackBerry handhelds.

Historically, BlackBerry smartphones have been thought of as strictly for white-collar workers, while ruggedized devices were strictly the domain of hard hats and steel-toed boots. However, both stereotypes are incorrect, and there’s a lot of grey overlap.

Field force workers, despite the rough-and-tumble stereotype, actually include diverse roles, including potato-chip delivery drivers, photocopier repair technicians, and restaurant inspectors. Clearly not all of these need fully ruggedized systems. Hence, organizations, in an effort to cut costs and standardize, are outfitting field staff with lower-cost, industry standard smartphones instead.

The ABI report looks at the factors that organizations considered in switching their field service teams from ruggedized mobile devices to smartphones – specifically BlackBerry smartphones. It analyzes the total cost and breakdown in various scenarios as shown below.

Source: ABI Research 2011: Comparing the TCO of BlackBerry Smartphones and Ruggedized Handhelds for Field Services Mobility

In addition to the quantitative measures, qualitative factors like ease of acquisition, upgrade management, application variety, development options, data security, and employee preference sweeten the pot.

All told, according to the study, the total costs and performance gains in switching from ruggedized devices to BlackBerry handhelds resulted in a five-year average TCO savings of up to 30%! Want to see where exactly the savings came from and how your organization might explore a similar evaluation? Click here to have a look at the report!

I’m sure your fellow IT leaders would love to hear about your experience in dealing with field service line of business managers. Have you integrated your field service teams’ requirements into your overall mobile strategy, or are you focused strictly on mobile execs? How do tablets like the BlackBerry® PlayBook™ tablet factor into this discussion? What special considerations or accommodations were required?