AT&T BlackBerry Z10 Release Date: Available Today for $199.99 With Two-Year Contract, Hits T-Mobile and Verizon Next Week

The wait is over for eager fans of the BlackBerry Z10.  The new smartphone is finally available in the United States to the general public.

AT&T is offering the Z10 for $199.99 with a two-year contract.

Customers on most other major carriers won't need to wait long, either. T-Mobile gets the Z10 on Mar. 26, and Verizon will have it available on Mar. 28.

Sprint has said it won't carry the Z10, opting instead to hold out for the QWERTY keyboard-enabled BlackBerry Q10, due out in the next few months. But recent rumors say Sprint will offer a "version 2.0" of the Z10 later this year.

Reviews of the Z10 have been mostly positive, and the new BlackBerry 10 operating system marks a departure for the company, pitting it directly against Google's Android, Apple's iOS and the Windows Phone OS in a battle for market share.

BlackBerry has said the Z10 is the most successful smartphone launch in company history, a trend they hope continues as it becomes available in its largest market. Americans have been clamoring for the phone, and an unnamed retailer recently ordered 1 million of the phones ahead of the stateside launches over the next week.

If BlackBerry is to continue its comeback after its corporate rebranding, the Z10 will need to perform well against a hot of other high-end smartphones about to hit the market.

The BlackBerry Z10 features a 1.5 GHz dual-core Snapdragon S4 plus processor, 2 GB of RAM, a 4.2-inch 1280x768 display, an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p HD video, 16 GB of internal storage, an SD card slot and runs the newly revamped BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Check back for the latest information on the BlackBerry Z10 as it becomes available.