BlackBerry CEO: Z10 debut in Canada has shattered records

No official numbers were offered, but Thorsten Heins, BlackBerry’s CEO offered up a brief statement Wednesday trumpeting a great launch of the new BlackBerry 10 handsets in Canada and the United Kingdom.

We have seen all sorts of conjecture about the meaning or source for the positive reception of BlackBerry 10. Some are saying that the Z10 is off to a better start than the Nokia Lumia 920, which is just starting to get caught up with demand. Others are saying that sell-out locations are the result of a low volume of devices being made available at retail locations.  However, it could also simply be that there was an impatiently waiting user base ready to receive BlackBerry 10 with open arms.

All things being equal, the simple explanation is usually the correct one. Mr. Heins said, “In Canada, yesterday was the best day ever for the first day of a launch of a new BlackBerry smartphone. In fact, it was more than 50 percent better than any other launch day in our history in Canada. In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone."

Now, the fact that no hard numbers were noted is not really a surprise. In fact, it is a page out of the playbook (pun intended) of the competition. BlackBerry will likely have more solid figures in line with the Canadian and UK launches at its quarterly earnings report at the end of March, which will also roughly coincide with the release of the BlackBerry Z10 in the United States.

source: CIO