BlackBerry hoped that its keyboard-equipped smartphone, the Q10, would be a huge hit with mobile professionals and consumers alike. After all, BlackBerry practically owned the market for QWERTY devices, and the Q10 was its get-back-in-the-game hero. But that’s not how it worked out. According to carrier executives and U.S. wireless store representatives, sales of the Q10 have been abysmal.
Wireless Zone, a retailer that sells Verizon Wireless products, said that the handful of Q10s it sold were returned by the customers, according to The Wall Street Journal . “We saw virtually no demand for the Q10 and eventually returned most to our equipment vendor,” said Chris Jourdan, owner and operator of 16 Wireless Zone stores located in the Midwest.
The phone didn’t sell well in BlackBerry’s home market of Canada either. “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,” said an unnamed executive at a Canadian carrier to the Journal. “It didn’t drive the numbers that anybody expected.”
Used phone dealers say the Q10′s arrival didn’t lead to the usual flood of trade-ins. “We thought there would be a pocket of diehard BlackBerry enthusiasts waiting to upgrade, but it seems they have already moved on,” said Jeff Trachsel, chief marketing officer at NextWorth.