BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion will begin selling BlackBerry Z10, its new touchscreen smartphone, to US consumers with AT&T on March 22.
The redesigned
BlackBerry 10 is RIM's attempt at a comeback. The pioneering brand lost its cachet not long after Apple's 2007 release of the iPhone, which reset consumers' expectations for what a smartphone should do.
The release will come several weeks after RIM launched the much-delayed devices in other countries.
AT&T on Monday said the BlackBerry Z10 will be available for $199.99 with a two-year contract.
Sales of the device began in the UK and Canada shortly after RIM unveiled the phone late January.
MUST READ: BlackBerry Z10 is a bold upgradeRival US carrier T-Mobile said it expects to deliver the new BlackBerry for some corporate customers as soon as the end of this week, though it did not provide details on the availability for non-business customers.
RIM Chief Executive Thorsten Heins had previously said he was disappointed
the new BlackBerry would not be released in the US until mid-March, but said the US and its phone carriers have a rigid testing system.
Heins had in February said the company would have to regain market share in the US for BlackBerry to be successful. The US has been one market in which RIM has been particularly hurt. The iPhone and phones running Google's Android software now dominate.
INDIA REPORT: BlackBerry Z10 sales off to a great start According to research firm IDC, shipments of BlackBerry phones plummeted from 46 per cent of the US market in 2008 to 2 per cent in 2012.
Heins also suggested that BlackBerry Q10, the model with the new operating system and a physical keyboard, might not arrive in the US until May or June, a month or two behind other parts of the world.
Shares of the company jumped $1.84, or 14.1 per cent, to close at $14.90 on Monday on the Nasdaq.
PHOTO: AP 
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