Late last week BlackBerry was the subject of a peculiar analyst report. The company is no stranger to negative analysis; from mid-2010 through mid-2012 (and even later) analysts routinely trashed the company’s present and future. But this report took the cake. It suggested not only that BlackBerry Z10 return rates were abnormally high, but that, “in several cases, returns are now exceeding sales, a phenomenon we have never seen before.”
(Perhaps the last line should have served as an indicator that the analysis might be faulty.)
BlackBerry quickly denied the claim, stating that return rates were actually favorable and “consistent with return rates for other premium smartphones in the market today.” Follow-up reports indicate that BlackBerry is indeed correct. They also claim sales are healthy, despite a separate, and less publicized, analyst report stating that Z10 sales “started poorly and weakened significantly as the days passed.”
Yet not all of the analyst reports are negative. Peter Misek of Jeffries’, who is no stranger to negative BlackBerry reports, has some positive news. On the returns, he believes that the Z10 is experiencing typical rates. In fact: “Of the few phones that were returned, the only main commonality we found is that buyers thought the Z10 had a keyboard. As it does not, they returned it and will buy the Q10 instead.” So that turns a disaster situation into something the company can hang its hat on. Just wait until the Q10 drops, BlackBerry can now say.
The Q10 probably won’t be the last BlackBerry model to reach consumers in 2013. We have known for a while that the company planned additional releases, but Misek’s report puts them into a bit more perspective. Value models are on the way, as expected. This will include both a keyboard and a touch device, giving the Z10 and Q10 something akin to the Curve. But that shouldn’t be BlackBerry’s only additional offering. They should have a 5-inch device ready for late in the year.
These large devices, sillily dubbed “phablets,” have grown in popularity over the last 18 months, ever since Samsung released the original Galaxy Note. It followed with a successful Galaxy Note 2 launch, while many other companies have gotten in line to create their own versions. In my experience the Note goes over best with business customers, who appreciate the large screen and stylus, and who don’t mind lugging around a larger device. With a large built-in enterprise audience, BlackBerry could so some serious damage in this niche.
We’ll have to wait a while for this to happen, but it appears a phablet is in the pipeline for BlackBerry. Honestly, while I think they’ve done well enough — as well as they can — with the Z10, a 5-inch device could prove to be right in their sweet spot.
The post Is BlackBerry Thinking Big With a 5-Inch Device? appeared first on MobileMoo.