[MaxR_A]

Hey Guys,

Just saw this article on BerryReview.com giving some insightful and properly researched news on BlackBerry Z10's on-the-ground sales performance so far in the UK. Very interesting and exciting!

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UK Gets On The Ground Analysis of BlackBerry Z10 Sales - Prices Going Up?!?
by Ronen Halevy on February 22nd, 2013

You may have heard about two analysts slashing sales targets for BlackBerry 10. With that in mind Michael Collins on Seeking Alpha has performed a on the ground channel check of BlackBerry Z10 sales in the UK FROM the UK. Some analysts have been reporting petering sales based on "Channel Checks" but Collins provides quite a bit more detail and is actually performing the checks in stores. According to his report the BlackBerry Z10s are selling like hotcakes in the UK. Carphone Warehouse and Phones4u have actually RAISED the prices on the BlackBerry Z10 to 529 GBP from 479 GBP making it higher than the iPhone 5 at 499 GBP. It seems like they are selling quite a few of the devices at all stores without contracts or SIM free with a thriving "Grey Market". This is the first time I have ever heard of the price of a phone going up AFTER launch.

Here are Collin's conclusions: "My limited UK channel checks have confirmed very important trends:

1. Prices are being increased post-launch.
2. The black market exists and is thriving 21 days after launch.
3. The larger UK stores as expected had 'massive' quantities at launch.
4. Those stores blew the phones out the door."

Check out the full details along with a very colorful comment thread over at Seeking Alpha:
Major U.K. Outlets Hike BlackBerry Z10 Price Above iPhone 5, Black Market Thriving - Seeking Alpha

[Omnitech]

Yeah I saw that. He seems like one of the only people who are not making idiotic analysis' of BBRY on Seeking Alpha. He did another good article on BBRY there also.

[Dapper37]

Yes Sir, there's only one way to look at it when prices have gone up! Sales are still going strong.

[mikeycollins13]

Happy you liked it. Please note the price increase was to 550GBP, not 529 as first reported. this happened mid week and I called a store to double check and price had officially move up to 550.

That is a full 50gbp over Iphone5!

[Omnitech]

Happy you liked it. Please note the price increase was to 550GBP, not 529 as first reported. this happened mid week and I called a store to double check and price had officially move up to 550.

That is a full 50gbp over Iphone5!

Heh, well then - thankyou for those articles Mr. Collins.

[MaxR_A]

Happy you liked it. Please note the price increase was to 550GBP, not 529 as first reported. this happened mid week and I called a store to double check and price had officially move up to 550.

That is a full 50gbp over Iphone5!

Thank you for the analysis! Perhaps you could tell your colleagues to do a better job analysing the Z10's sales so as to stop shorting the stock needlessly!

Posted via CB10

[digitalman101]

I was going to buy/import from amazon uk, and was expecting for the price to drop soon... Got unpleasent suprise because price went up. :-(

[greyw0lf01]

Why would a price increase be proof of strong sales?

The top 3 phones globally (IP5/4s//GS3) didn't have price hikes. I read the article yesterday and assumed that prices were being hiked because demand is coming from a dedicated ase who would pay a high(er) price regardless. But if you think about the author's logic of demand/supply, then anything we crave would suffer price increases (excl food, commodities, etc where inputs rise)... And by extension, does that mean Canada sales were weak?

Either way, until BBRY releases it; no one knows.

[Omnitech]

Mr. Collins just did another fab article over on Seeking Alpha, making all the idiotic BBRY bashers look silly indeed, by blasting us with REAL FACTS instead of the biased innuendo that seems to be the rule these days when it comes to analysts opining about BBRY:

BlackBerry Outsells Competition At The U.K.'s Largest Retail Store And In Business Sales - Seeking Alpha

[darkehawke]

i see a slight error in that article

CPW does not sell the device sim free. They did sell it, but have since removed any option or advertising for sim free. Unofficially the reason given is because they can make more money selling it subsidised and they do not have enough stock for sim free. This could mean either stock is limited or stock is selling too quick.
and Phones4U sells the white Z10 at �480 still but have increased the black Z10 to �549 sim free. I cant imagine they would raise the price if the phones were not selling at all. The pessimist tells me that they may have raised the price simply to counter the reselling market that was thriving, but then why would they risk their own sales and profits for that. The only conclusion i can draw is that the Z10 is selling well, and the black device is far outperforming the white device.

Also not seeing too many of them appear in exchange shops which is usually fairly common for new devices, especially blackberries.

These are all comforting things quite frankly, but ultimately means little when we do not know just how many devices have been shipped.
But whether supply was limited or not, they still sold, and as much as people can try and twist the story, the fact remains that there has been demand for the devices