BlackBerry Torch low in sales, good reviews; gets price drop

Prospective owners of RIM’s new BlackBerry, there’s good news and there’s bad news. The good news is that RIM has decided to continue to sell the recently-launched BlackBerry Torch for just $99 with two-year contract via Amazon and other online retailers. Great, right? The bad news: the price drop comes after a week of possibly-lackluster sales and reviews. According to Goldman Sachs, sales of the new smartphone from RIM were “underwhelming” in the first week, with no stores “selling out of the device.” Although sales of the Torch weren’t terribly low, with one analyst estimating sales at around 150,000, these numbers still don’t compare to those of competitors, with Motorola’s Droid X selling almost an estimated 300,000 during launch earlier this summer, and, of course, the iPhone, which Apple claims it sold 1.7 million of in just the first three days.

For highly-popular phones, sticking to a sole provider might be a smart move, even making the device an asset for the company, as seen with the iPhone and AT&T. However, with sales as they are, perhaps this is a sign that RIM should consider bringing the Torch out to more than just AT&T, its currently-exclusive provider.

(via Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal)

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Tagged as: BlackBerry, RIM, Torch