Sales of the new BlackBerry in the UK have been better than expected, the chief executive of Canadian maker Research In Motion has said.
But Thorsten Heins added that he is disappointed it will not be released in the United States until mid-March,
In an interview with The Associated Press, he said the US and its phone carriers have a rigid testing system.
“We need to respect that. Am I a bit disappointed? Yeah, I would be lying saying no. But it is what it is and we’re working with all our carrier partners to speed it up as much as we can,” he said in the interview at the Ritz Carlton in Toronto.
RIM unveiled new BlackBerrys last week after excruciating delays allowed Apple, Samsung and others to build commanding leads in the industry. Its shares fell 12% after Wednesday’s launch, despite positive reviews about the new BlackBerry 10 operating system.
The first device in the new crop of the much-delayed revamped BlackBerrys on the US market will be the touchscreen Z10. Black and white versions were released in the UK last Thursday and will be launched in Canada today.
Mr Heins said a substantial number of UK users are moving from other platforms to BlackBerry and said that is an encouraging sign because they first targeted long-time BlackBerry users.
“It’s beyond expectations,” he said. “White is sold out already. The black is hard to stock up again. It’s very encouraging. I won’t share the number because I need to verify it, but we are getting a substantial number of users moving from other platforms to BlackBerry. That is an interesting data point.”