The OTA update addresses five major areas designed to improve the functioning of the phone.

One of the areas that the update is expected to address is in the performance of third party applications so that developers can create apps that will run as fluid as the OS itself. In fact, the update has helped coders behind WhatsApp finally push out an ETA on the BB app, which they say will now hit the phone in March for sure, Think Digit said.

The update also improves the low-light performance of the Z10’s camera, which has been compared in many reviews as matching the iPhone 5’s camera.

Since BlackBerry is all about keeping in touch while email, among others, the update fixes the Gmail calendar on the new smartphone along with improved call logging in the Hub. The update also makes it easier to import contacts from various online sources.

The other two updates are focussed on improving browser and media playback and also battery life.

The best part about this is that it shows that the technology guys at the back-end are devoting themselves to identifying the shortcoming in the smartphone and have set themselves to rectify as soon as they can.

Customers can only be happy with this prompt response.

Richard Piasentin, Managing Director of Blackberry’s US Business, told at an industry event that many of the Blackberry Z10 buyers are new to Blackberry. According to the sales data provided by the company, half of the Z10s sold in Canada were purchased by customers who have never used a Blackberry device before. Something similar had been seen in the UK market too. In UK, one-third of Z10 buyers are using Blackberry for the first time.

According to Blackberry, this is only preliminary data and should be treated in the similar manner. The good thing about this preliminary set of data is users other than Blackberry loyalists are buying Z10. It is truly a good sign for Blackberry. Blackberry’s long-promised comeback was not just to convince Blackberry users to continue using the device. The company also wants to compete with iOS and Android devices so that users choose Blackberry over its competitors in the smartphone market.

Amy McDowell, spokeswoman for Blackberry, told AllThingsD that consumers who are currently using other platforms have shown significant interest in Blackberry’s Z10. She also said that it is not possible to comment further on the basis of present preliminary specifics. She also added that reports from Canada and UK are quite encouraging and present Blackberry customers are also showing interest in all new Z10.

Sprint, the third biggest network carrier in the U.S. and is the only one among the bigger carriers which will not be offering the Z10.

The Z10 is a touchscreen-based phone while the Q10 has a physical keyboard. The Z10 is scheduled to make its debut in the United States this month.

“We aren’t saying there’s anything different about our customers,” Sprint spokesman Mark Elliott was quoted by Bloomberg in a report.

“We think our customers will be happy with the qwerty keyboard and touch screen on the Q10.”

Blackberry is launching its new range of smartphones, based on its new operating system BB10, in phases across the world. It was first released in the United Kingdom, Canada, the Middle East and now India.

For Ontario-based Blackberry, a touchscreen phone is distinct departure from its usual physical keyboard-based devices, which has become its hallmark.

In fact Chief Executive Thorsten Heins expects that the new touch devices will be selling more than keyboard-based ones 3 to 1.

The other big U.S. carriers — AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA — have created sign-up pages for customers interested in getting e-mail alerts about the availability of the BlackBerry Z10. Exact release dates haven’t been announced.

Postmedia News received a memo which contained the warning using the access to information act from Public Safety Canada. This is a department of the government of Canada which is somewhat similar to the Homeland Security department of the United States. As far as BlackBerry is concerned, one of its ways to communicate is through pin-to-pin. Sending messages with the help of this method is far from secured. Such messages have vulnerable encryption because the default encryption key is not unique to a BlackBerry but is same for all the BlackBerrys. That is why it is extremely easy to decrypt a sensitive message which is sent from one PIN to another.

However, it is important to note that the warning applies for PIN-PIN messages only and not to any other feature(s) of BlackBerry. For a very long time, BlackBerry has had a very strong hold in the Department of Defense in the United States of America. The latter had recently released its Commercial Mobile Device Implementation Plan and it includes the capabilities to put into use commercial off-the-shelf products like Samsung Galaxy S III or an Apple iPhone.

The plan of the DoD is not good news for BlackBerry because the company will lose its foothold if the plan is implemented. The DoD is looking forward to create a new mobile architecture that will enable commercial devices to be utilized for classified communication.

Moreover, 50% of pre- registration for the Z10 in Canada came from users who did not already own BlackBerry devices. It was unclear whether Z10 would be able to get the buyers over iPhone and Android users following its release.

BGR has now learned from multiple trusted sources that BlackBerry has indeed managed to pull off the coup it so desperately needed. Several high-level BlackBerry executives have confirmed internally that half of all BlackBerry Z10 sales in Canada have been made to new customers coming from other platforms. Even more, one-third of Z10 sales in the UK, another key market for BlackBerry, have been made to customers who did not already own BlackBerry smartphones.

On the said reports, BlackBerry refused to give any comment. Early reviewers worried that while BlackBerry 10 showed great promise and the Z10 was a terrific early effort, the new operating system didn’t offer any compelling differentiation that might draw users away from the iPhone and Android smartphones. If early performance in these two key markets is any indication, however, BlackBerry’s new platform may be a bigger draw than as expected.

Though Clewey states that what the users of the Z10 are mostly going to get are improvements, he has mentioned about a few fixes as well. He specified that the Gmail calendar has been fixed in BlackBerry 10 but has not mentioned what the actual problem was. As far as other improvements are concerned, they are inclusive of better conversation handling as well as call logging in the BlackBerry hub, improved support to import contacts from the sources online, as well as better video playback in the web browser. A better battery life is also one of the advantages.

According to Clewey, the company has made software optimizations that are more than 60 in number to bring about an improvement in power consumption on the Z10 smartphone since the time it was launched. He also said that this will allow the heavy users to get more out of their device between the charges, but he declined to say anything more on the subject. As per Clewey’s suggestion, users might want to wait till they are on Wi-Fi networks before downloading and it weighs around 150 MB.