‘No Line of Sight to Profitability’: BlackBerry Z10 Sales May be Lower Than Expected, Shares Plunge
Shares in Waterloo’s BlackBerry plunged 5% in trading today after analysts declared lower than expected sales of the company’s new flagship smartphone, the Z10.
According to Pacific Crest and Cannacord Genuity, BlackBerry may sell as few as 300,000 Z10 units by March 2, the end of its fiscal year. Earlier estimates suggested upward of two million.
“There is no line of sight to profitability; we remains sellers of [shares in] BlackBerry,” wrote Pacific Crest’s analyst. The analyst figures BlackBerry will ship less than 1.5 million units to retailers, down from previous expectations of four million units.
RELATED: Former CEO of BlackBerry Sells Entire Stake in Company
However, neither BlackBerry nor any retailers have released official numbers yet. BlackBerry did say its launch days in Canada and the UK were its best ever, though: chief executive officer Thorsten Heins issued an official statement earlier this month that described the Canadian launch of BB10. And ccording to Thorsten, the Z10 launch day “was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone” in Canada.
Specifically, he said the company sold 50% more devices than during any other BlackBerry device launch in Canada.
