BlackBerry Priv orders could start as soon as this Friday, October 23rd

Those of you who have been waiting to pre-order the BlackBerry Priv, perhaps you should be getting your money ready. Ads that have been seen on various websites state that pre-orders for the Android powered slider will begin on Friday, from BlackBerry's own website. So far, we have seen the U.K.'s Carphone Warehouse, and Canadian carrier Rogers accept pre-orders for the phone. For the last few weeks, it has been rumored that the Android-flavored slider would be released in November. A pre-order period that begins on Friday would certainly dovetail with a November release of the phone.

While there has been no official price released, Carphone Warehouse is asking nearly $900 for the Priv SIM free, and Rogers will sell the unit for $399.99 with a two-year contract, and $799.99 off-contract. BlackBerry CEO John Chen has talked about selling the phone with an installment plan.

There is a lot riding on the shoulders of the BlackBerry Priv. A success could keep BlackBerry churning out more handsets, while a failure could mean the end of BlackBerry as a smartphone manufacturing company. Ironically, there are many who see the Priv as a device for the enterprise because of the security features that BlackBerry baked into Android. On the other hand, there are many consumers who see the Priv as a attractive Android device featuring a sharp QHD screen, with a high pixel density for viewing videos and playing games. And the physical QWERTY makes messaging a lot smoother.

Many of you have been waiting a long time for the Priv, and if the ads we've seen are right, you only have to wait two more days to reserve your phone from BlackBerry.

source: MobileSyrup