BlackBerry CEO hopes to sell 'several tens of millions' Q10 units

BlackBerry is trying hard to make a comeback in the smartphone arena with the help of its BlackBerry 10 smartphone line-up. The Canadian smartphone maker had started retailing its full-touch smartphone BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in January 2013 and now its QWERTY smartphone has also hit the shelves.

As per a news report by Bloomberg, the initial sales of BlackBerry Q10 have been encouraging. The report quotes Peter Misek, an analyst at Jefferies Group LLC (JEF) in New York, as saying that the smartphone was sold out in several stores across UK. "Salespeople were well-versed on the device and there was more apparent buzz versus the Z10 launch," Misek said.

Buoyed by the success, BlackBerry's Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins, addressing the Milken Institute conference in Los Angeles, said, "We have very, very good first signs already after the launch in the U.K." He also added that the company had high expectations from this smartphone and were hoping to sell "several tens of million of units" across its user-base of 70 million users worldwide.

For users who might have missed, the BlackBerry Q10 (Pictures) comes with the brand new BlackBerry 10 operating system (Review). It sports a 3.1-inch super AMOLED touchscreen. There is an 8-megapixel camera on-board. Connectivity options include Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 4G and NFC. BlackBerry Q10 also packs in 2GB of RAM, 16GB of internal storage and a 2100mAh battery.

There is no news in regards to when BlackBerry Q10 will be available in India and at what price.

Though there are encouraging signs for BlackBerry, the real challenge will lie in company's ability to sustain these initial numbers. Another challenge will come when the smartphone maker will introduce its mid-range smartphones running on the BlackBerry 10 operating system. Currently the mid-range market is being dominated by Android, though Nokia through its Windows Phone 8 offerings is trying to grab a slice of this market.

Rumour has it that BlackBerry will launch four new smartphones in this calendar year, which includes another flagship smartphone and at least two mid-range smartphones.