BlackBerry’s Disappointing U.S. Launch Effects Share Value

By: Zain Nabi  |   March 26th, 2013   |   Business, News, O Canada, Smartphones

BlackBerry has seemingly failed to so far impress the consumers in the U.S. as many reports indicate that the launch of the new Z10 phone in its biggest market is very disappointing. This has also caused a stir in the stock market that has seen a decline in BlackBerry’s share value due to such dull response.

 

BlackBerry’s shares received a hit at the time the phone was launched as it had been announced that it would take some time to reach the U.S. markets. Analysts predicted that the share value dropped because the public had been expecting the phone to reach the U.S. markets soon. The new phone was launched early in the U.K., Canada and some other European markets, where it received a good response. This led to the expectations that the phone had the potential to do good business in the U.S., but that does not seem to be the case now.

 

Simona Jankowski, a Goldman Sachs analyst, wrote in her report, via Forbes:

 

“We now assign a 20% probability of success for BB10, down from 30% previously, as the disappointing launch of the Z10 at AT&T reduces our confidence that sell-through of the BB10 will be successful in the important US market.”

 

The point to worry for BlackBerry is that its U.S. sales figures, if good, can certainly provide the Canadian-based company the much needed boost to get back in the game. It has entered the smartphone market after a long time during which many other competitors have jumped in and captured the market.

 

According to some experts, the new BlackBerry has not been doing very well in the U.S. markets because it lacks some important features and apps that the public wants to have. Forbes quoted a USB team as mentioning:

 

“We continue to struggle with the strategic positioning of the company longer-term. Unlike the competition, BBRY, in our opinion, lacks a compelling multi-screen device strategy as well as a content ecosystem and cloud strategy. It remains practically a single product company, as increasingly the outlook of the Playbook remains questionable as well. With limited scale and resources to invest relative to its competition including Samsung, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, and Huawei, amongst others, the longer term outlook remains challenging for BBRY, in our opinion.”

 

Photo: BlackBerry