BlackBerry (former RIM) has been struggling in the recent years. The company neglected to innovate at a reasonable pace and now it is suffering. BlackBerry 10 software, along with the Z10 smartphone were supposed to be the saviors of the company, however, the backfired and did not go anywhere. Sales of the Z10 were poor from the start, and everything just continues to go downhill.
The once dominant BlackBerry thought that the Q10 smartphone will bring in some good news for them, but everything backfired. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, sales of the BlackBerry Q10 have been very, very poor.
When BlackBerry announced the BB 10 software, along with the Z10 and Q10 smartphones, it was originally thought that the company would release either the Q10 first, or both of the smartphones at the same time. CEO Thorsten Heins states that the reason why the company delayed selling the Q10 is because BlackBerry “owned” the QWERTY-keyboard market. We all already know that BlackBerry is famous for the keyboards revolution in smartphones, however, the company and CEO Heins may have gotten it all wrong this time.
According to executives from carriers and other retailers, the sales of the Q10 have been very poor. While BlackBerry has not said anything as to how things are going for the Q10 in the market since the release, everyone else including the carriers are expressing their frustration.
Another reason why BlackBerry decided to wait is because the Z10 was originally released first to compete with other smartphone companies such as Apple and Samsung. The company thought that it could “afford” to wait on releasing the Q10 while the Z10 battled it out with other smartphone makers in the post-physical keyboard era, but the Z10 tanked and did not perform so well.
Here is some more information:
In another indication the new BlackBerry devices aren’t selling well, used phone dealers aren’t reporting the flood of old BlackBerrys that typically comes when updated devices are released. Jeff Trachsel, chief marketing officer at NextWorth, which buys used electronics, said both the all touch-screen Z10 and Q10 launches were “nonevents” from a trade-in perspective.
BlackBerry continues to struggle and dig itself a deeper grave. We should at least give credit to the company for giving its best shot at making a comeback, but so far have yet to impress anyone. The next earning report is due on September 24th for BlackBerry. This will literally save a portion of the company or completely break it.
Do you think BlackBerry is completely done for?
