Thorsten Heins, the president and chief executive of BlackBerry, acknowledged on Tuesday that the company's new line of phones, which he originally promoted as something that would revive its flagging brand, had a flawed release in the United States.
But Mr. Heins, speaking at the company's annual meeting, told investors BlackBerry just needed more time for a turnaround - and he again sought their patience.
Not everyone was biting. One shareholder, referring to one of the new phones, the BlackBerry Z10, told Mr. Heins: ''My sense is that the rollout of the Z10 was a disaster.''
''Were we perfect at the launch?'' Mr. Heins responded. ''Probably not. Was it a disaster? I don't think so.''
After more than two years of development, the new phones and their new operating system were supposed to give BlackBerry smartphones capabilities similar to those of phones made by Apple and Samsung, the dominant forces in the market. But hopes have vanished that the new phones would swiftly increase market share in the United States -- now just 0.9 percent, according to a survey from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech.
Late last month, BlackBerry said that it had shipped just 2.7 million of the new models, about a million fewer than analysts expected. That disappointing news set BlackBerry's stock sharply downward and eliminated the possibility that the annual meeting would be a turnaround celebration.
When Mr. Heins introduced the company's new phones in New York this year, he spoke to an excited crowd, a situation that was repeated at a meeting this spring with enthusiastic developers. But on Tuesday, when he faced a crowd of shareholders and questions about the weak sales of those phones, the reception was far more muted.
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And maybe that is the best he could have hoped for. A few weeks ago, when the shipment numbers were released, the company also reported an $84 million loss in the latest quarter. BlackBerry shares still have not recovered -- and a chorus of harsh questions about the direction of the business have not gone away.
Mr. Heins again warned investors to expect more losses during the current quarter, while the company increases its spending on marketing and other promotions for the new BlackBerry 10 line of phones. And although the company has spent the last two years saying the phones were the centerpiece to its future, Mr. Heins repeatedly said on Tuesday that ''we are not a devices-only company,'' and he outlined his hopes for growth in its data services business.
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