As much as 45 per cent of people buying the BlackBerry Z10 smart phone were users of either Android or iPhone handsets, according to a recent study by Canadian investment firm RBC Capital Markets.
RBC researchers bumped up their earlier forecast saying the Canadian phone maker will likely register a delivery of 500,000 units for February rather than this 350,000 projected for that period. By May, BlackBerry would have shipped two million, according to RBC.
While there may be some supply chain challenges, according the online business site Forbes.com, BlackBerry has bucked earlier Wall Street projections and covered a wider 35 per cent subscriber base in the launch of its new smart phone.
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For example the Z10 sold out in India in just two days and ranked number five in the monthly top 10 phone list of Carphone Warehouse, a large European retailer.
RBC also reported that BlackBerry can count on enterprise users who are now demanding their IT departments for upgrades to Z10 units.
Earlier this week, BlackBerry said it received a massive order from one of its partners.
“An order of one million devices is a tremendous vote of confidence in BlackBerry 10,” Rick Costanzo, EVP of global sales for BlackBerry said in a blog post on Wednesday. “…With strong partner support coupled with this truly re-invented new platform, we have a powerful recipe for success.”
Data from survey firm comScore indicates that BlackBerry does not even appear in the list of top five phone manufacturers and comes in third (5.9 per cent) behind Android (52.3 per cent) and iOS (37.8 per cent) in terms of operating systems market share.
Another dark cloud looming in the horizon, RBC said, is the fact that BlackBerry is stall falling behind competitors in terms of mobile apps.
“The large number of ‘coming soon’ apps (30 per cent of to 10 free/paid iPhone apps) such as Skype is a lingering annoyance for users,” RBC said.
