The Wall Street Journal has posted an article quoting sources that the Blackberry Q10, the first keyboard phone running Blackberry 10 has had little to no traction in sales since launch.
Quote:
Chris Jourdan, who owns and operates 16 Wireless Zone stores in the Midwestern U.S. that sell Verizon Wireless products, said customers didn't show up for the Q10 as expected. His stores only ordered a few of the devices per location and "the handful that sold were returned."
"We saw virtually no demand for the Q10 and eventually returned most to our equipment vendor," he said.
"I think we'd all say that the Q10, the one we all thought was going to be the savior, just hit the ground and died," an executive at a Canadian carrier said. "It didn't drive the numbers that anybody expected."
A Sprint spokeswoman said there was interest in the Q10, especially among business customers. "We get asked quite often about phones with a qwerty keyboard," Michelle Leff Mermelstein said. "So we know there is a demand for it."
On the other hand, BlackBerry's announcement earlier this month that it had formed a special board committee to explore strategic alternatives including a possible sale of the company could give would-be customers pause, according to analysts and carrier executives. People might be reluctant to buy a phone and commit to an ecosystem of applications and services if they aren't sure the company will be around.
Looks like the demand for a new Blackberry keyboard phone isn't what they were expecting. Could these sales mean Blackberry putting more focus on their Z series and foregoing the Q series in the future? Is it because of Blackberry's less than stellar market position or the phone itself?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...813417918.html