Canadian carriers preparing for the launch of the BlackBerry Leap

While BlackBerry has been rapidly rolling the all-new BlackBerry Leap out to new areas, one country interestingly left off of the list, which thus far contains France, Germany, Malaysia, US, and UK is Canada. Since the BlackBerry Leap availability started being announced, Canada has taken a 'coming soon' position leaving many folks wondering what the hold up is. That said, it's starting to look as though it won't be that much longer at all for Canadians who want to get their hands on one for a number of reasons.

  • Thanks to a number of tips and public comments, we know TELUS has now started taking delivery of accessories for the device, plus there have been several mentions of 'mid-May' for a release date.
  • Rogers retailer websites such as this one and this one are now listing the BlackBerry Leap as coming soon. The coming soon part isn't really new, but it's a partial acknowledgement from Rogers.
  • Buried deep within the Bell website when you search for BlackBerry Leap, you'll find results for the device in their help and accessibility sections.

Sure, that stuff is all a bit of speculation and rumor but perhaps the biggest nod of its arrival comes to us from Jim Love over ITBusiness, who has now posted up a new and rather great look at the BlackBerry Leap (you can view it below), which is understandably called 'Sneak Preview of the BlackBerry Leap'. It's a sneak preview of course because according to him, the BlackBerry Leap will be officially be announced for Canada on May 7th, which is also the rumored launch date for the BlackBerry Leap in India.

So, taking all that into account if it wasn't obvious before, it might be a bit more now. The assumed hold up for a launch of the BlackBerry Leap in Canada appears to be because BlackBerry was making deals with the carriers. We'll still have to wait and see if the date pans out and what pricing the device comes in at, but we know from BlackBerry it will carry an unlocked, off-contract price of $349, but carriers can beat that price down with contracts.

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