Blackberry plans to roll out high-end smartphone in time for the holidays

Blackberry, ever-ambitious and pushing to regain all it has slowly lost, plans to release a flagship handset in time for the holiday season, a phone the company's CEO Thorsten Heins says he is "very excited about." This information comes from an interview the CEO had with the folks over at CNET, and while precious few details were given, it is said to be one of a few the company plans to launch in 2013.

Said Heins, "There's one new product I'm really excited about, but I can't really share it." He went on to state that the phone's launch is planned in time for the year-end holidays, but that he cannot say with absolute certainty that it will roll out in time. What he does say, however, is that the device "takes Blackberry 10 to another level in terms of the user experience."

A statement which, given the relatively near release date, might give pause to those who were planning on the grabbing the Z10, which went up for pre-order earlier this month and will be available from multiple carriers in just a few days. While the Z10 has been getting all the attention, Blackberry also unveiled the Q10, which features a physical QWERTY keyboard and will be available next month or the month after.

Speaking of a physical Blackberry keyboard, Google's Eric Schmidt revealed this week that is he a Blackberry user, and his reason for using the non-Android handset is because he likes the keyboard. He should be happy to hear, then, that Blackberry's CEO said the company will roll out three tiers of devices, each one offering both touchscreen and QWERTY options.

[via CNET]