One of the criticisms levelled at BlackBerry in the past is the fact that they tend not to release device numbers but that just may be changing under John Chens regime.
After recent BlackBerry 10 device launches, there was a slew of articles by BlackBerry and fan sites alluding to massive sales with the term “sold out” frequently used. Of course, later figures showed this was pure hype with BlackBerry 10 devices failing to sell in massive numbers.
Over the weekend, that routine was repeated, with another article on the Inside BlackBerry Blog stating the BlackBerry Z3 had sold out in Indonesia. Meanwhile, other reports were alluding to the Z3 having received a lukewarm reception.
The problem with hiding your numbers is that it generally leads to the assumption that it’s being done due to low numbers.
Today, on the Inside BlackBerry Blog, Eric Lai has provided numbers.
According to my colleagues, as of the end of Saturday, BlackBerry has now sold more than 1,250 smartphones at Central Park alone.
Indonesian readers have been telling us there was just over a thousand on sale at each outlet, so their information looks to be pretty much spot on.
Taking into consideration that this was a three day event and it was sold in other outlets in Indonesia, It appears as if around 15,000 to 20,000 units were put into the channel to test the waters. That is an estimate but it looks like a conservative and risk averse approach has been taken by BlackBerry and Foxconn. An extremely sensible approach as well.
It’s far from an iPhone-level of success, but that isnt the purpose. Indonesians still lined up in Jakarta to get their hands on this BlackBerry 10 smartphone and that’s what counts.
If our estimates are correct then this can only be viewed as a success for BlackBerry.
Hopefully BlackBerry will continue providing device numbers and highlight that they are far from dead in the consumer world and are more than capable of producing smartphones that users want.
