With the launch of the new BlackBerry Z10 this week, Charlottetown electronic companies weren’t sure what to expect in terms of customers eager for the new device.
While there were advance orders for the new product by BlackBerry, some stores still had stock for sale after the launch day earlier this week.
A spokesperson for a city electronics store said customers were eager to pick up advance orders, but the smartphone isn’t as popular as some of the other competition on the market right now.
“This new phone is now directly competing with the IPhone,” he said. “It’s got everything that is on the line in the market right now.”
The BlackBerry Z10 has a touch screen and a keyboard that will also predict what sentence you are trying to write, based on ones you’ve written in the past.
“It also has what’s called a BlackBerry Hub which will have all of your social messages in one spot,” he said.
“On the IPhone, if you want to go on your Twitter application then you have to click on your Twitter application. You want to go on Facebook, then you have to click on that application.”
The Z10 also has a camera on the front of it, so you can video chat with contacts on the BlackBerry messenger application.
“It’s basically the same concept as the IPhone with Facetime,” he said.
Sales for the new phones have not taken off on P.E.I., but off-Island areas have seen a surge. In Toronto, they were sold out.
"But here, we haven’t seen that kind of madness,” he said.
When the store was getting ready for launch day, they were prepping for a huge crowd. “We still have stock now, which is really weird,” he said.
“We not sure why it happened. We’re not sure whether there wasn’t enough time or whether people are starting to go away from BlackBerry,” he said.
“They might be more interested in the IPhone or the Android devices.”
With the launch of the Z10 being a make-or-break point for BlackBerry, the spokesperson thought it might be enough to pull them out of the hole with the new functions the phone has.
“This will give them enough time to make another new device and they aren’t far off from making a great device,” he said.
“At the end of the day, their market is businesses and this is a phone for businesses to have.”
In terms in popularity, the spokesperson wasn’t sure if the Z10 could reach the glory of the IPhone or the Samsung Galaxy.
“At one time, they were in the top five in the world for phone sales and I think it’ll be hard for them to get back to that point.”
