Blackberry Z3 beats market expectations; runs out of stock in 2 weeks

When Blackberry launched Z3 smartphones in India, people in the telecom arena were of the view that it would be another run-of-the-mill product for the Ontario-based company and will succumb to intense competition in the market just like its predecessors Z10, Z30, Q10 and Q5 models.

But to everybody’s surprise two weeks after it was launched, Z3 is running out of stock.

According to Sameer Bhatia, director, distribution, Blackberry India : “We have seen an excellent response from the consumers for the recently launched BlackBerry Z3 in India that has resulted in an almost stocked out situation. We have seen traction for BlackBerry Z3 both through the traditional channel as well us online.” 

Bhatia says, BlackBerry Z3 is designed with Indian consumers in mind and for people looking for a smartphone that excels at communications, messaging and productivity. Priced at Rs 15,990, the BlackBerry Z3 is able to run all Android apps and offers bigger screen, longer battery life and has all the features of BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2.1.

According to Tarun Pathak, telecom analyst at CyberMedia Research, “Blackberry has its loyal customers in India. And Z3 is a phone which has got the right mix of hardware and software. Besides, the security provided by Blackberry devices is another attractive feature.” 

But of course pricing is an important factor, says Girish Trivedi, director, Monk Consultancy, “The right pricing of this device is leading to the huge sales. We still remember Z10, which was priced at around Rs 40k but was reduced to Rs 17k as it failed to enthuse the market.”

Trivedi adds, “Discount offers and other marketing strategies are also some of the reasons behind the huge sales.”

So with Z3, is the company charting out its revival plan once again? Experts believe that Blackberry should keep going and to regain momentum it should adopt follow-up models, especially at a time when competitors are launching models at a faster pace.

Pathak says, "In this cut-throat competition, the company should come out with a number of launches in this segment to regain its market share, which is less than 0.4% currently.”

Blackberry has tied up with Foxconn, the makers of Apple i-phone, to launch Z3, which was introduced in Indonesia for the first time. Due to its tie up with Foxconn it is difficult for Blackberry to compete in entry level/lower end of the smartphone market.

“I think mid level smartphone segment will be critical for Blackberry success as it comprises around 35-40% of the total smartphone sales in India. Apart from this it should focus more on enterprise market where it still has strong hold worldwide owing to its gold standard when it comes to security,” says Pathak.