[grevan88]

Was listening to 680 news in Toronto during my commute. They had nothing but negative things to say about the company. Analyst downgrades, lackluster demand in the US and more...

I still have hope but it's pretty upsetting to hear such bad press for a company I respect so much.

What are your thoughts, Crackberry community?

Posted via CB10

[Omnitech]

There were some important entities who had a negative view on the AT&T launch, not just the 2-bit dummies that you are always seeing bashing BBRY. That includes Citibank and Goldman-Sachs, the latter of which has historically been positive on BBRY, but downgraded their stock a little bit today.

I've been saying for close to a week now that AT&T's Z10 launch seemed lackluster at best, they're doing a lousy job, really. So those criticisms are probably warranted in terms of effort.

But Verizon looks to be doing a much better job with the product from all indications, and the downgraders all mentioned AT&T's tactics, not their numbers. Once VZW and T-Mobile get online with the product I think the numbers will be fine, maybe even better than expected.

I should mention I'm talking strictly about the USA here. Much as lots of Yankees would like to think the US market is the only one in the world, it certainly is not. BBRY is doing fairly well in its big overseas markets, so even if the US launch is tepid, it won't sink them.

[dbmalloy]

Bottom line.. does not matter how this last weekend went.. the 1st quarter numbers will tell if the launch was a success... not a whole bunch of analysts who call stores in a limited market to see what is up...... keep In mind the actual launch does not actually happen till Thursday when the other carriers begin general sales....

[grevan88]

While I believe the Thursdays report is going to be positive it will reflect only some of the company's biggest markets. If the USA was part of the global launch this same report may have been negative.

It was a smart move by the company to launch in a time frame that left out the USA to show positive results but I am worried Bout the success of the phone. I was doing online inventory checks at the att stores in new York City and out of hundreds there were only a handful that were sold out. This is a far cry of the sellouts that happened everywhere else in the world.

Posted via CB10

[whoppo]

AT&T did a terrible job of promoting the Z10 overall...
My wife and I went to the local AT&T store at 9am on launch day.
We were the only ones there.
There were NO Z10's on display.
There were NO Z10 banners or advertisements anywhere, inside or outside.
We were greeted by a very nice sales rep who was very helpful and took great care of us, but it went something like this:
CSR: "Hello!, Welcome to AT&T... what can I do for you?"
ME: "Hello.. you can sell us a couple of Blackberry phones!"
CSR: "Absolutely! Which model interests you today?"
ME: "Why the new Z10 of course... in black please."
CSR: "Z10? Is that available yet?... Let me check for you..."
ME: "Yes.. today is launch day for AT&T... Didn't anyone tell you?"
CSR: (walking into the back room) "Just a moment..."
a few minutes later..
CSR: "yessir! We have several boxes of them out back... I cut one open and here are two for you!"

Aside from the sales folks not even knowing about the launch or the several un-opened boxes of Z10's out back, the rest of the experience was outstaning. We were set-up and out the door in 15 minutes.

Yes... the US Launch seems to have been very disappointing and from what I've seen we can place the blame squarely on AT&T's shoulders.
Hopefully TMO and VZN will do it right.

[anon(5624621)]

I am shocked that AT&T didn't want to take advantage of having the Z10 first. Sure they may have thought only five BB diehards would buy it, but wouldn't they want all five to buy from them??