BlackBerry A10 tipped as Z10 follow-up, said to be hitting Sprint in November

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins teased earlier this year that his company had a new product in its pipeline that he was "really excited about," piquing the interest of BlackBerry fans everywhere. However, the executive declined to offer any other details about it at that time, and there haven't been any other hints about the mystery device since then. That's changing today, as a new report claims to have some new information on the device that Heins was referencing.

Sources speaking to CNET claimed that BlackBerry is working on a new flagship smartphone that's currently known as the "BlackBerry A10." The device is described as being a high-end follow-up to the Z10, meaning that it will bump the Z10 and Q10 down to mid-range status upon its arrival. There aren't many concrete details about the A10 right now, but CNET says that it will be a full-touch device, which makes sense considering that it's being billed as a successor to the Z10.

Today's report says that the BlackBerry A10 is slated to launch during the holiday season and that Sprint is already on board, with plans to add the A10 to its shelves sometime in November. Sprint frustrated many of its subscribers earlier this year when it decided not to offer the Z10, but one source familiar with the carrier's plans said that Sprint saw what BlackBerry had coming and decided to wait for the A10 rather than offer the Z10. Sprint's agreement with BlackBerry for the A10 isn't thought to be exclusive, so the A10 could eventually appear on other operators as well.

Many of the details contained within today's report line up with one that surfaced back in March. That leak claimed that Sprint was planning to launch a new full-touch BlackBerry device in the second half of 2013, with a separate report describing the handset as "version 2.0" of the Z10. We're still in the dark about what will make the A10 tick, but it sounds like a phone that may please BlackBerry spec hounds. While the Z10 isn't exactly bleeding edge, it does have a respectable feature set that includes a 4.2-inch 1280x768 display and dual-core processor. What will be interesting is seeing how BlackBerry will up its game with the A10. Perhaps a larger screen or a quad-core chip? We'll have to wait and see. What specs would you like to see included with the A10?

Via CNET