Blackberry is Now Selling Unlocked GSM Handsets (Z10 and Q10) Directly to Customers

One thing that most mobile device manufacturers do is sell direct to customers. Of course, there are still plenty of companies that let the wireless carriers handle all of the device selling, but that’s not the point. Companies stand to make pretty good money selling direct to customers, especially when the devices are unlocked for use on multiple wireless networks.

Blackberry even used to sell GSM ready handsets on their official website. It was buried behind various pages and you really had to dig to find it, but at least you could purchase an unlocked Blackberry directly from the company. Why would you want to do something like that? Well, maybe you’re going out of the country and you need an unlocked device to use with foreign networks. Perhaps even you’d like to use a phone out of contract and you just want to buy it outright instead of paying ridiculous subsidy fees. Regardless of the reason, at least the option was there.

Recently, companies have moved away from doing that entirely. It doesn’t really make sense considering a lot of wireless carriers are moving away from the traditional 2 year contract model, but hey whatever floats your boat.

Blackberry has started selling Z10 and Q10 handsets to customers directly online. Strangely enough, the option cropped up from seemingly out of nowhere. That is, we don’t exactly have a timeframe of when this all started. Blackberry has been rather hush about it too, as in no press releases or public announcements. The option just kind of appeared on the site one day. That being said, we’re definitely happy about it!

If you decide to pick one up, you’ll be purchasing a fully unlocked GSM device straight from the factory. It’s worth mentioning, the prices are pretty high since they are not subsidized. You’ll be paying full price for the handsets, then again that’s not a bad deal all around. The Blackberry Z10 is priced at $449, while the Q10 sits at a cool $549.

You can get the devices in multiple colors including white, which gives T-mobile customers a better option should they decide they want something other than the norm.

Unfortunately, Blackberry is only shipping the unlocked devices to those living in the US. If you live outside of the fifty states, you’re out of luck for now. Because of how quietly this all cropped up, it’s difficult to say if Blackberry will eventually expand their operation to include other regions of the world.

There are always other ways to get your hand on an unlocked device though, and I’m not talking about the unscrupulous methods obviously.

What do you think of this news? Are you going to purchase an unlocked handset directly from Blackberry? Are you upset that they decided to offer such a thing, if so why? Please feel free to let us know your thoughts and opinions down in the comments. We love to hear from the community! That is what the comments section is there for, after all.