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A visitor tries out the touchscreen BlackBerry Z10 smartphone at the 2013 CeBIT technology trade fair on March 5 in Hanover, Germany. BlackBerry shares leaped over eight percent on Mar. 13 after the company received an order for 1 million smartphones, with another gain of over two percent in afterhours trading in the U.S.
Smartphone maker BlackBerry saw its shares jump 8.16 percent on Wednesday after announcing that an unnamed buyer had bought 1 million of its new BB10 smartphones.
Shares closed at $16.04 on the Toronto Stock Exchange, moving up $1.21 from the previous $14.83 close.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based company cited confidentiality reasons for not disclosing the identity of the “established partner” who made the purchase, according to The Canadian Press.
Meanwhile, the much-anticipated BlackBerry Z10 smartphones will finally be available in the United States starting later this month, American telecom giant AT&T announced Monday.
The Z10—the first handset to run the company’s new BlackBerry 10 operating system—will be available to U.S. consumers on March 22, while pre-sales began March 12. AT&T will offer the Z10 for US$199.99 on a two-year contract.
The success of the smartphone in the U.S.—one of BlackBerry’s largest markets—is seen as particularly crucial to the brand’s long-term viability.
“AT&T customers were the first to experience BlackBerry smartphones and services in the U.S. and we are thrilled to bring the next evolution, the BlackBerry Z10, to the nation’s fastest 4G LTE network,” said Jeff Bradley, senior vice president, devices and developer services, AT&T Mobility.
Verizon Wireless, the largest U.S. mobile phone operator, has also said it will start taking preorders for the Z10 on March 14 and that retail offering will begin on March 28. Sprint Nextel Corp. will not offer the Z10, but will sell the Q10, a model that comes with the BlackBerry’s trademark physical keyboard.
The BlackBerry Z10 first launched in Canada and the United Arab Emirates last month, and in the U.K on Jan. 31, and is now available in over 20 countries. The U.S. launch has lagged behind other countries due to a lengthier review process for new smartphones.
The success of the smartphone in the U.S.—one of BlackBerry’s largest markets—is seen as particularly crucial to the brand’s long-term viability.
According to Bloomberg, BlackBerry Inc. (formerly Research in Motion Ltd.) generates as much as one-fifth of its revenue from the U.S., its biggest market share.
BlackBerry was once a leading smartphone brand in the U.S., thanks to a large core demographic of enterprise customers, but lost significant market share to competitors Apple and Samsung in recent years.
The U.S. debut of the Z10 is the company’s highly anticipated attempt to reclaim its market position south of the border.
BlackBerry will face stiff competition, however, with Samsung expected to unveil the latest version of its popular Galaxy smartphone series on Thursday, just days before the new BlackBerry Z10 becomes available through AT&T Inc. and T-Mobile.
A new iPhone from Apple is also rumoured to be coming available later this year.
After the Z10 was launched in Canada in early February, BlackBerry chief executive Thorsten Heins announced it was the best first-day launch in the company’s history, breaking previous sales records in Canada by 50 percent.
Though specific sales figures have not yet been released, carriers have reported successful sales and the Z10 has generally enjoyed positive reviews by tech experts.
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