BlackBerry Q10 Could Outsell Z10

At least one analyst sees some light in BlackBerry's future.

After less-than-stellar sales of the company's first BlackBerry 10 smartphone, the Blackberry Z10, and some analysts suggesting that returns actually outnumbered sales of the device, it seems the company has been pretty down on its luck. However, the upcoming BlackBerry Q10, the second device to run the BlackBerry 10 OS, is expected to fare much better and could help BlackBerry make some gains in the market.

Macquarie Capital analyst Kevin Smithen seems to think that will be the case. Smithen wrote in a recent report he expects to Q10 to appeal to enterprise customers, which account for 13.4 million of the company's subscriber base. He also predicts BlackBerry will ship 4.3 million BB10 devices in total in May and 2.7 million in August. He cited strong enterprise demand for the Q10 and noted the August estimate may be a bit conservative.

BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins seems to agree with Smithen. He recently told Bloomberg TV he expects to sell "several tens of million" units of the Q10 handset. The device has already been released in the U.K. and seems to be doing well. High-end U.K. department store, Selfridges, noted the device is the company's fastest-selling consumer electronic, which can only be good news for BlackBerry.

However, recent reports have also indicated that both Samsung and Apple are set to receive security approval from the United States Department of Defense, which would allow those companies to infiltrate the government and enterprise markets that BlackBerry has long had a stronghold on.

The Q10 handset is set to be available on all four major U.S. carriers by the end of the month, so only time will tell how the device will actually fare. But for now, strong analyst predictions is good news for BlackBerry.

Source: BGR