BlackBerry Q10 grabs Selfridges tech sales record

UK retailer Selfridges was the first to sell the BlackBerry Q10 when it exclusively offered the new smartphone over the weekend ahead of its nationwide rollout tomorrow, 30 April. And in doing so, the store saw one of its former sales records smashed.

The QWERTY keyboard-touting BlackBerry 10 phone - the handset many BlackBerry fans were waiting for - was Selfridges' fastest-ever selling consumer electronics product. And it took less than 24 hours to do so.

It went on sale on Friday 26 April in the chain's London, Birmingham and Manchester superstores and initial stock sold out in two hours. The on line pre-order site also had 30,000 page views in the two days before the phone went on sale.

"The BlackBerry Q10 has been, without a doubt, the most highly anticipated smartphone we have ever sold and is already our most successful," said Selfridges' head of Home and Leisure, Julian Slim. "Our partnership has proven to be a powerful combination of great technology and commercial success."

The phones initial performance ahead of its general release can be seen as great news for BlackBerry, which has battling with negative reports published by analysts on the sales performance of the Z10, its non-keyboard BB10 smartphone.

"The BlackBerry Q10 represents the next chapter in the BlackBerry 10 story and we are delighted that it has been so well received," said Rob Orr, BlackBerry UK managing director. "This initial success at Selfridges highlights the strong consumer demand for a high-end physical keyboard smartphone."

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