Here are some more findings as I continue to explore the Z10.

For whatever reason, the Z10 faces many of the same challenges that the N9 has.

(1) cross platform video chat is a problem. This alone could cause me to walk, because I'm sick and tired of this issue. Unless you have BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), you'll have to wait for ooVoo or, perhaps, Skype. Skype is coming to BB10 via Android port, but I can't find confirmation that video chat capabilities are coming with it. Would you trust MS? I wouldn't. Also, there is currently a program called Face Flow for the Z10 that some use, but I haven't used it yet. The BlackBerry G-Talk app doesn't have video chat, which is a bad sign.

(2) voice recognition on the Z10 is very hit or miss and doesn't hold a candle to the major competitors. There are frequently these ridiculous misses, leaving little confidence that it saves time at all. For very simple language it has a better record, but I have to give this a meh score. If the same BB10 team that did their typing/text prediction did the voice features, they'd have Siri smoked, because text prediction is a-mazing. Also, the voice commands that I have found so far are very basic, like an app I remember on Symbian, and have none of the even mildly advanced features of the top competitors. But I'll keep looking.

(3) Both the Facebook and Twitter clients lack important features. Tweetian or Qneptunea would be the best Z10 Twitter clients, were they available. (some good cash is there to be made, I think). The stock app is like the N9's stock app. No memory of where you are in your time line, no translation feature, no send to Pocket, etc. BB10's Facebook app lacks FB chat, etc.

(4) Despite some dropped features, the social integration is fantastic, and you can know the minute that one of your contacts does anything on any of the covered social sites. It's like having your own FBI/CIA/NSA in the palm of your hand. Social stalking for fun or profit has never been easier, LOL.

(5) I love the hub, the browser, and the predictive text and keyboard. Best in show on these marks, which along with social and a few other apps, is my use pattern. I thought that I'd miss the haptic feedback, but I don't. Use the keyboard and you'll know. Next, the browser lacks text reflow, but has flash. It is super fast and gives a great overall experience.

I find the Z10 to have a degree of polish equal to or superior to the N9's, even though the N9 has been around for much longer. The N9 is much more tweakable, that's for sure. And there are some minor issues with BB10, but overall it seems like a well put together experience.

I'm hoping it solves some of the big problems fast and expands on its already attractive benefits.

Well, what can you expect when they're the only options the salesmen know about.

Spoke to 3 guys in 3 different outlets today and not one of them knew about the forthcoming Ubuntu, Firefox and Sailfish options.

Was looking at the Z10 again today. I do like the phone, but meh........ As Hacker says the build quality is good, if a little uncomfortable to hold due to the sharp edges.
Not sure if I could go back to a device that's so seriously locked down after playing with the N900 for so long though.

Maybe I start reading crackberry I feel BB is gaining momentum... BB's push in US is not enough and they need carrier's help to get the message out.

Let me elaborate on why I compared BB10 with Harmattan...
First of all, BB10 has this staged launch so it is very much like Harmattan in initial shipment.

For Harmattan my app (Stockona, btw) is one of the few apps in its sector so it got great visibility. This sort of offset the smaller user base, that's why I used Harmattan as a benchmark.

In BB10, the competition is much crowded andd harder. Mine is a symbian port so I understand people might prefer other Cascade apps and simply ignore anything that is not Cascade native. Besides, there is already one dominant app (Stocks for BB10) that gets 4.5 star with 100+ reviews. I know I am not going to be able to gain too many shares here, but the upward trend in download value is a good sign. Of course I wouldn't consider catching up Symbian or Harmattan download rate good but at least the upward trend tells me BB10 is gaining ground day by day. Whether the gain is good enough or not is another story, we will have to wait and see.

I like how BlackBerry doesn't try to please everyone with BB10, but has a clear targeted audience. BB10.0.x still is buggy to me, and one thing that stands out to me is that copy-past/text selection is a royal pain. 10.1.x already has a more polished UI, and if they can fill some feature gaps and do decent bug fixings, I do feel BB10 can tie with WP in worldwide sale at the end of this year. Yeah, I am optimistic, otherwise I wouldn't still be in Qt world

@stickymick I couldn't agree more. Nearly no one at mobile stores knows about Sailfish, Ubuntu, or Firefox. Maybe one out of six will know about one of these upcoming OS's, if you're lucky. But it's early in the game, and I think people are likely to know more as products near launch and availability dates. I hope.

@sony123 I agree with your opinion that BB10 seems to be growing. And I'm glad the BB10 OS is a new outlet for our talented Qt devs (I have Stockona on my N9 right now). I think it would be cool if our devs could take advantage of the BlackBerry opportunity.

Guys, Ubuntu, Jolla/Sailfish, aren't available to purchase. They won't be for at least two more quarters. For anyone in sales to steer you away from what they can sell you more for something that's not even sure to come to your market in the same price point is suicide. Yes, they should know aspects of the mobile *future* but not at the expense of what's available now.

If that's leaving only Android and Apple in your markets, then make a better MeeGo solution. For this platform to be this old (remember the 770), and the level of the users, we only have ourselves to blame if mobile retailers don't know the value of this.

Now, BlackBerry has chance and a community to change the convo. Either we can be a part of that rising tide, making it better when Jolla and others come with a strong, purchase-able product. Or, we can sit in the very area that many older mobile platforms never leave: "could have been good, will hold on until it's no longer enough."

The problem with the Maemo community ditching their N900's and N9's and joining the BBX community is....support.

RIM has been, and always is a proprietary company that's never been interested in the open source world. I don't just mean you and me, but even to developers.

This cost them greatly in 2009-2012. They've learned their lesson, and took steps with The PlayBook (v2.1 is great, previous versions were a beta test). Now they've adopted Qt which is C++ derived framework, is open-source, etc etc.

They're not only trying to woo their current BB fans and app developers, they're also trying to woo some userbase from that legacy Nokia and Palm groups. They're doing so with the appeal of support and openness.

But what's to say RIM's not going to turn their backs on these fans after its built a stable foundation?

Nothing. It won't stand to lose anymore. Since "stupid people" are what drives this market. Those people who prefer to be legally bound and choose to pay more. Those people that don't understand how a device works, and only care about the price and marketing.

For this reason, you must diminish any hope of a mobile linux ecosystem. The only way you could satisfy your hunger is to buy certain imperfect niche devices from various companies (ie/ HD2, N900, N9, Jolla, etc etc).

@Kangal and others, Please help me to understand.

It seems like all of the OS's are closed to some degree. Even Jolla and Ubuntu will have some closed aspects, right? Therefore, I don't mind some degree of closed OS, I just don't want something so closed that it gets in its own way and hinders a great device experience. That said, I definitely do like that the Qt devs (and others) have a new cool BB10 UI and hardware platform to exploit.

And, yeah, I agree that companies are always changing their degree of openness and that BlackBerry could change course, but the future is never promised. I bought a Nokia 900, E7, and N9, but Nokia went MS and so I'm through buying Nokias for the time being. My focus is on the nearer term with BlackBerry anyhow.

I'm keeping my N9, but I am also buying a new device, too. The BlackBerry Z10 is my first candidate.

My first worry is that there doesn't seem to be nearly as much openness for the BB10 as there is for the N9, so truly, where is BlackBerry when it comes to being open? Not being able to run apps in the background? That seems a bit extreme to me. For instance, there is a BB10 app that can assign a custom message light signal to a particular contact, but it only works when the app is open as one of your eight active frames. In short, the devs seem to be very limited in what they can do because of API issues.

Other utility apps are also negatively affected. Example: there's no call blocker app for white list and black list management on a businesses phone!

I'm hoping BB10 does get more open, since there is a lot of Qt and other developer talent out there and BlackBerry could use the polish. Developer first movers who have a pretty good app (I'm looking at you Twitter app devs) could play a large role.