UK sells Several 100,000 Z10's When BlackBerry announced that the new BlackBerry Z10 would launch first in the U.K., there was such a wave of disbelief. When it was announced that U.S. sales would not start until mid to late March, the stock tanked dramatically. But if what one analyst is seeing is correct, it looks like there was method to the madness at Waterloo.
In a Research Note sent off toclients, Jefferies analyst Peter Misek said that the all-touch BlackBerry Z10 is off to a strong start in the U.K. with some stores reporting long lines and "widespread sellouts" of the white model. The black version of the device has limited stock, according to the analyst. Misek calculates that several hundred thousand units of the first BlackBerry 10 flavored smartphone were sold. Putting that in perspective, he notes that the Apple iPhone 5 sold 5 million+ units during its launch weekend. But he notes that the U.S. is five times the size of the U.K., which he says bodes well for BlackBerry.
This has led to a 10% rally in the stock Monday morning, which is trading today for the first time as BlackBerry using the ticker symbol BBRY on NASDAQ.