Canadian smartphone manufacturer BlackBerry could be in the midst of a resurgence driven by strong sales of it’s new, touch-based device, the BlackBerry Z10.
“I’ve got four (Z10 devices) in the back of the store, and I imagine I’ll be out of them before the end of the week,” said Denny Bolster, manager of The Source in Town ‘n’ Country Mall.
Bolster’s confidence in the selling power of the Z10 is supported by reports from Canadian telecommunication giants Bell, Rogers and Telus, all of which had reported strong pre-order numbers.
Reports of strong sales in Canada and Britain — it went on sale in the former Tuesday, and the latter late last week — have snowballed into positive performance on the stock market, with BlackBerry making strong gains on the back of analyst optimism.
BlackBerry’s performance is being driven by the strength of it’s new platform.
“BlackBerry has really stepped it up,” Bolster told the Times-Herald Tuesday. “I have a BlackBerry 9900 (Bold) myself, and the touch screen is all right ... the touch screen in the Z10 is a lot more responsive than it was on my older BlackBerry.”
The device is further strengthened by the logical flow between programs and the ability to use different functions together to create new projects, Bolster said.
“Everything is paired together so nicely,” he said. “You can basically make a slideshow, bringing music, videos and pictures into it, and create a story right on the spot. You can take things from your BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) and bring them directly into your calendar. Everything flows very nicely on it, from what I’ve seen.”
Bolster said BlackBerry’s traditional base of business users will likely be satisfied with the new product.
“With everything working so well together, it makes organizing very easy and very intuitive,” he said.
The ability to use multiple applications to produce a single result, share on-screen images and text via new video chat features in BBM, and the predictive text functionality are further selling points for business clientele, Bolster noted.
“There’s been a lot of hype for BB10, and I’ve been asked about it for a few months now. It’s nice to actually have one in my hands,” he said. “I’m excited. I’m up for an upgrade soon, and I’m hoping they give me one of these.”
