*from www.bloomberg.com, Mar. 22, 2013 (To view original article click here.)
Take Away #1: BlackBerry (BBRY)’s new Z10 smartphone goes on sale in the U.S. today, almost two months after its debut in other countries.
Key Facts and Figures:
- CEO Thorton Heins kicked off U.S. sales of the touch screen device last night at a theater in New York’s Times Square.
- The Z10 hit shelves at AT&T stores today.
- The phone will be offered by Verizon Wireless on March 28.
- The phone was first unveiled on Jan. 30, and it’s been available for weeks in the U.K., Canada, and other markets.
- The U.S. delay has been attributed to longer equipment-testing procedures of American carriers.
Take Away #2: Heins is trying to reverse BlackBerry’s fortunes in the U.S. where the one-time smartphone leader has lost ground to Apple Inc.’s iPhone and Google Inc.’s Android phones.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Sales in the country fell by almost half to $520 million in the third quarter from a year earlier.
- Still the U.S. still accounts for about a fifth of revenue for BlackBerry.
- “There’s no risk of overstating the importance of the U.S. for BlackBerry,” said IDC analyst Ramon Llamas. “It’s such an important bellwether market.”
Take Away #3: Most buyers of the BlackBerry Z10 will probably be from corporate customers, rather than consumers.
Key Facts and Figures:
- At an AT&T store in midtown Manhattan this morning, there were no iPhone-style lines of shoppers waiting for the new BlackBerry.
- “Most of the corporate clients are asking for BlackBerry’s,” said Jorge Garcia, a sales rep at the AT&T shop on Lexington Avenue.
- Garcia expects about 90% of the new phone’s sales to come from corporate customers, with 10% coming from walk-in shoppers.
Take Away #4: Early demand suggests that the Z10 will perform well in the U.S. as in Canada, said Chief Marketing Officer Frank Boulben.
Key Facts and Figures:
- Boulben expects to “hit the ground running” citing “substantial pent-up demand.”
- The U.S. will add to the phone’s global footprint and by the end of April, BlackBerry expects the Z10 to be available from 150 carriers around the world.
- By this time next year, there should be six different BlackBerry 10 models on the market, said Boulben.
- Verizon Wireless, the nation’s biggest carrier, has begun taking orders for the Z10 ahead of making it available in stores next week.
- Sprint Nextel Corp. (S), No. 3 in the market, won’t sell the Z10 at all.
- Sprint will instead offer the Q10, a version with a smaller screen and physical keyboard that’s coming out later this year.
Take Away #5: The rollout of the new phones is supported by the biggest marketing campaign in the company’s history.
Key Facts and Figures:
- BlackBerry splurged on a Super Bowl ad in early February, betting that it could build excitement around the phone even though a U.S. debut wasn’t imminent.
- BlackBerry, long popular with corporate clients, has tried to project a more artistic image with new products.
- At the Jan. 30 unveiling, it introduced Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys as its global creative director, a new title.
Take Away #6: Critics have praised the Z10’s features, including its virtual keyboard.
Key Facts and Figures:
- BlackBerry dispenses with a home button, which is used by iPhone and Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy S to take users back to the main screen.
- The Z10 relies instead on gesture-driven navigation to switch between applications and peek at messages while still in the Web browser.
Take Away #7: Shares of BlackBerry (BBRY), formerly known as Research In Motion Ltd., have rallied about 40% this year on optimism that the new lineup can revive BlackBerry’s prospects.
Key Facts and Figures:
- BlackBerry stock climbed 3% to $16.65 at 9:55 a.m. in New York.
- Still the stock remains down almost 90% from its 2008 high of $147.55.
- The staggered rollout of the new devices makes it tougher for analysts to predict the impact on quarterly results.
- Sales estimates for the period that ended March 2 range form as little as $2.41 billion to as much as $3.42 billion.
- With an average estimate of $2.84 billion, that would represent a decline of 32% from a year earlier, but still a smaller drop than the company posted the previous quarter.
- Morgan Stanley analyst Ehud Gelblum raised his rating on the stock this week to the equivalent of a buy.
- Gelblum cites the potential for the BlackBerry 10 phones to lift the company’s average selling price and profitability.
- Still BlackBerry will struggle to regain lost market share in the U.S., Gelblum said.
- The company will appeal mainly to existing BlackBerry users looking to upgrade, rather than gaining converts.
- “Our more bullish stance is not based on a resurgence in share in the U.S., where users are already mostly sold on the Android/iOS duopoly,” said Gelblum.
*To view original article from www.bloomberg.com click here.