BlackBerry's hard keyboard is its selling point for businessman Andrew Plympton. Photo: Jesse Marlow
Lucille Keen
If BlackBerry was hoping for a flood of buyers for its do-or-die Q10 phone which launched in Australia last week, it may have been disappointed.
Early indications are the keyboard phone may appeal to existing BlackBerry users, but it's not luring the converts to the newly redesigned platform that the struggling handset maker desperately needs.
Q10 buyers were few and far between in Melbourne on Thursday, just two days after the release of the phone.
In Telstra's 'icon store', on the corner of Bourke Street and Swanston Street, customers strayed towards the more popular iPhones, with very few paying attention to the signage above the Q10 handset.
But prominent businessman Andrew Plympton knew exactly what he wanted.
Walking straight to the Q10 stand, Mr Plympton said he was here to buy the new model, waving around his old BlackBerry.
'I've decided I am going to hand this one in and get the new one,' the chairman of three ASX-listed companies told The Australian Financial Review.
'I want to upgrade. I adore the BlackBerry. I use it to send and receive emails; to make calls.'
Mr Plympton, a long-term BlackBerry owner, said all he needed for business was an iPad and his BlackBerry.
Mr Plympton said he was not a fan of the touch screen, and found the hard keyboard easier to use.
He said the new model that allows customers to replace the battery was a real incentive.
Popular among the converted
Battery life was another factor that drew environmental planning student Lionel Chou to the model.
'Longer battery life is definitely something I would like,' the 24-year-old said.
'I also think the screen was too big on the previous BlackBerry, the Z10.
'This model [the Q10] is better. It's good to have a hard keyboard as I send a lot of texts and can type faster. The Q10 feels good, but brand new it's a little expensive.'
Telstra device management director Andy Volard said while it was too early to analyse sales data, the company had seen customer interest through its stores, the Telstra Exchange blog and social media channels since announcing in February the BlackBerry Q10 was coming.
'BlackBerry fans have been asking us about the launch date of the Q10 for months and early indications from our retail and online stores show the Q10 will be quite popular, particularly among existing BlackBerry users looking to upgrade to the BlackBerry 10 platform and wanting the familiarity of the QWERTY keyboard,' Mr Volard said.
That is more or less in line with what analysts have been saying about the Q10: it will help stem the flow of users away from BlackBerry but it may not win new users.
BRS technology analyst James Turner said conversations with his corporate clients provided a good indication about the level of success of new devices, and BlackBerry had not been raised in months.
He said he believed BlackBerry was no longer in the free fall decline of a year ago but seemed to have plateaued at a low level among enterprise customers.
'I expect the Q10 will be of great interest to people who have a strong preference for a keyboard.'
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