The price of BlackBerry shares increased by seven percent on news that retail outlets Best Buy and Walmart were sold out of the Priv earlier this week. Both retailers have since seemingly restocked on the smartphone, but specific details on the sales figures for the BlackBerry Priv are still unknown.
In addition, the Best Buy and Walmart, the BlackBerry Priv is also being sold in the United States through the company's website, Amazon and AT&T.
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The massive demand for the BlackBerry Priv may largely be due to it being the company's first Android-powered device, reversing BlackBerry's fortunes on smartphone sales over the previous few years. BlackBerry's previous models performed poorly in the market, leading to the company only having a very small percentage of the global smartphone market that is dominated by iPhones and Android-powered devices.
With BlackBerry shifting to Android for the Priv, customers gain access to an expansive library of apps that was not previously available for BlackBerry devices. This increases the appeal for the Priv, which maintains aspects that BlackBerry fans love about the company's smartphones such as the slide-out keyboard.
An Android-powered BlackBerry smartphone was unthinkable some years ago, as the company was insistent on sticking with its proprietary software. However, with the initial success of the Priv, this could push BlackBerry to continue with its devices being powered by Android.
John Chen, the CEO of BlackBerry, has previously said that he intends for the company to exit the smartphone business and focus instead on software development if the business does not become profitable. Chen added that would be needing to sell five million units of BlackBerry smartphones annually to have the company's smartphone division break even.
With the surge in share prices amid the selling out of stock for the Priv, it seems the BlackBerry smartphone is not dead yet.
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