BlackBerry Z10 beats the company's own expectations with launch in India

The BlackBerry Z10 has recently launched in India and by all indications, sales are off to a strong start. The strong start has beaten BlackBerry's own expectations enough for BlackBerry India to raise its forecast for Z10 sales in the country by 40%. According to Sunil Dutt, Managing Director of BlackBerry India, in some areas, 45% of those purchasing the phone were coming to BlackBerry from another platform, which is a good sign for the new BlackBerry 10 device.

To get customers interested in the phone, BlackBerry has been training retailers to give quick 1 minute demonstrations and some retailers have been decked out with Wi-Fi so that potential customers could get an idea how Wi-Fi connectivity works, and to allow them to see the process of downloading apps, and internet browsing. And to handle customer inquiries, BlackBerry has set up 100 new service centers where complaints and inquiries are handled within 24 hours. Dutt says that "Eighty per cent of the time, the complaint is not about the product but more about a feature which the user does not understand."

While the BlackBerry Z10 is been available in the country's BlackBerry Stores, some smaller retailers have received units which have sold well. Vikrant Badhwar, owner of Beecham's (BlackBerry Store), Delhi, said, "We received the units of the Z10 on the evening of February 27. Since then, I have sold 57 units of this smartphone." Most of the BlackBerry Stores have sold about 50 units each while smaller retailers have sold the 7 to 8 units they each received. In India, the phone is priced at 43,490 Rupees ($795 USD).

The big test for the BlackBerry Z10 will be the U.S. launch. The latest speculation is that the device will be released by AT&T on March 15th.

source: BusinessToday via BlackBerryOS