TORONTO – U.S. analysts are once again losing faith in Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry after the BlackBerry Z10 made a less than impressive debut in the U.S. market last week.
BlackBerry shares were up 18 cents, or 1.24 per cent, at $14.69 Tuesday morning following a string of stock price declines over uncertainty about how well the new Z10 smartphone is catching on in the U.S.
AT&T, the second-largest carrier in the U.S. by total subscribers, began selling the touch screen smartphones on March 22 for US$199.99 under a two-year contract.
Jim Suva, an analyst for Citigroup, said the initial launch of the Z10 was disappointing in the U.S. market despite a “good roll-out” in Canada and the U.K.
Suva noted, during a CNBC report, that the embattled smartphone maker had a good amount of carrier support behind it in Canadian and U.K. markets, but lacked the same amount of advertising and promotions in the U.S.
Another blow came after Goldman Sachs analyst Simona Janowski took BlackBerry off the “Goldman’s Americans Buy List,” citing the disappointing launch.
Goldman Sachs had added BlackBerry back to the “Buy” list in November when shares were on the rise.
The Waterloo, Ont.-based company needs to gain consumer traction in the U.S. market in order to make up some of its lost market share.
The U.S. market makes up about 20 per cent of BlackBerry’s global subscriber base.
BlackBerry has yet to release a statement regarding official sales of the BlackBerry Z10.
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