It’s been only a week since BlackBerry announced the Z10 in the U.K., and we’re already hearing different theories of how the Waterloo company is fearing with sales. Earlier this week Jefferies analyst, Peter Misek, said that the Z10 is doing well in many retail stores overseas. Misek claimed that the white Z10 was in high demand, selling out in almost all places. He also expected a huge amount of devices to be sold, saying “We estimate sell-in to be at least several hundred thousand units.”
Now another analyst challenges this glowing report about how well the Z10 is selling. It turns out, retailers didn’t have many Z10 handsets to begin with, and that the sellouts are just due to low supply.
“Checks at 40 stores in Canada indicate sell-through of the BlackBerry Z10 smartphone is strong on its launch day, with numerous stores selling out towards the end of the day,” RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue wrote in a note to clients on Wednesday. “Z10 pre-orders reached record highs (for BlackBerry).”
Sue continued to tone down the hype, by adding “Supply appears limited, with stores allocated avg. 5-10 units/store for walk-ins and est. 20-30 units/store for pre-orders.” Basically, this is good for BlackBerry standards, because this low supply still exceeds the company’s expectations — no matter how low they may seem.
Sue and another analyst went on to say things we’ve already heard such as the dire need for the phone maker to regain customers from Android and iOS, and the looming issue BlackBerry may have with keeping stock for high demand. And so on.
BlackBerry’s big challenge is a month from now, when the Z10 comes to the United States. That’s when things get real.
[via bgr]