The latest Canadian connection
After reporting shipments of over one million Z10 devices, an order for 3,000 BlackBerry 10 units from Canadian sporting goods and auto parts retailer Canadian Tire might not seem like a very big deal, but it is, actually. The retailer has decided to make the Z10 and the Q10 the chosen business devices for its corporate teams across the country, and across its different business units, which includes Canadian Tire Retails, Canadian Tire Financial Services, Sport Chek, Sports Experts, National Sports, and Atmosphere. While adding corporate connections is definitely not new for Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY), this exact event is of great importance.
For BB10, the biggest corporate figure so far
Recently, BlackBerry successfully introduced the latest BB10 devices to the world. While the BB10 device got huge acceptance from consumers, before Canadian Tire, no corporate entity placed an order for these latest devices that equals or exceeds the 3,000 units ordered, and that’s what makes this deal special. The Ontario-based company launched the Z10 in Canada and the UK in its previous fiscal year, and experienced strong demands. Following this, the company made the device available in the U.S. almost six weeks after it was made available in UK and Canada, and as a result, the impact of U.S. sales was not felt in the Q4 financial release.
While, on account of robust BB10 demand, shares of Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) had surged significantly, soon Wall Street started doubting the true potential of the stock. Analysts started to feel that the promotions conducted by the phone maker were insufficient to generate awareness and demand. Automatically, analysts started expecting less from Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY). So far this year, the stock reported the highest closing of $17.90 on January 22, and since then it has plunged 23%. However, after the Canadian Tire news, the prices finally witnessed some upward movement and rose by 2.5% to $13.84. And why was this so? That’s because the deal gave a positive ray of hope to shareholders and showed that there is great demand for the devices.
Another reason why this point is important is that it signifies a strengthening relationship between BlackBerry and its corporate partners. Canadian Tire and the Z10 maker are old acquaintances. Three years back, the retailer had developed an app for the BlackBerry platform and very quickly the app turned out to be one of the most popular apps in Canada. Canadian Tire’s association with BlackBerry has grown stronger with time, and this might very well be the situation between Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) and many of its other corporate partners.
So, this was the first development. Now, let’s take a look at the second one.
If Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has Siri, BlackBerry has Viki
Research In Motion Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) has always been well-known for its superb email-on-handheld concept, and also provides the market’s best security features. The BB10 platform also looks into the issues of old and stale operating systems, and offers a fresh and interesting interface for socially-inclined-gadget-oriented smartphone users. What else do you need? A personal assistant? Well, wish granted.
