BlackBerry slams Z10 returns report as 'false and misleading'
Seeks investigations by US and Canadian securities agencies
BlackBerry president and CEO Thorsten Heins has fired back at an article in The Wall Street Journal which cites a report that returns of the Z10 are outnumbering sales – and that report was just the latest bad news for the beleaguered smartphone manufacturer.
"Return rate statistics show that we are at or below our forecasts and right in line with the industry," Heins insisted in a company statement on Friday. "To suggest otherwise is either a gross misreading of the data or a willful manipulation. Such a conclusion is absolutely without basis and BlackBerry will not leave it unchallenged."
That challenge, BlackBerry says, will include requesting that the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Ontario Securities Commission to review what the company characterizes as a "false and misleading report."
The report in question was issued by a Detwiler Fenton wireless analyst, whom the WSJ quotes as saying, "We believe key retail partners have seen a significant increase in Z10 returns to the point where, in several cases, returns are now exceeding sales, a phenomenon we have never seen before."
Not so, says Heins. "Sales of the BlackBerry Z10 are meeting expectations," he writes, "and the data we have collected from our retail and carrier partners demonstrates that customers are satisfied with their devices."
The BlackBerry statement also notes that Detwiler Fenton has both refused to provide them with a copy of the report itself and to explain the report's methodology, "even after the Company said the firm's findings were 'absolutely false'."
BlackBerry's chief lawman Steve Zipperstein is as ticked-off as Heins. "Everyone is entitled to their opinion about the merits of the many competing products in the smartphone industry," he wrote, "but when false statements of material fact are deliberately purveyed for the purpose of influencing the markets a red line has been crossed."
The defensiveness displayed by Heins and Zipperstein is understandable: recent news hasn't been good for BlackBerry. As The Reg reported earlier on Friday, an analyst for the equity-research firm MKM Partners reiterated his Sell rating for BlackBerry (and Nokia) on Tuesday, saying that 82.6 per cent of 1,500 surveyed US consumers didn't know that BlackBerry 10 had been launched in Canada and Europe.
"The ineffectiveness of BlackBerry's marketing plan is highlighted by the 63 per cent of respondents who were completely unsure as to when the BB10 would be released in the US," he wrote.
In addition, on Thursday AllThingsD cited a smallish survey by the financial-services firm Raymond James in which 71.4 per cent of the 250 consumers surveyed agreed with the statement, "Nothing would get me to buy a Blackberry [sic]." When the same statement referred to an iPhone, the number was 19.7 per cent, and an Android phone, 31.3 per cent.
As the WSJ summarized its opinion, "these early indicators do not bode well" for the BlackBerry Z10. ®
COMMENTS
Re: More being returned than currently being sold...
...but apparently it's not true at all.
BB basically said "publish your numbers, we are not afraid of them" and these scumbags refused to even discuss their methodology, much less show anything to anyone.
Y'know, "put up or shut up" rule.
Since they neither put up nor shut up BB had to move and actually they did the right thing by referring them to the SEC and its Canadian equivalent (instead of bitching about it endlessly.)
Now that shit did hit the fan for them I'm very curious what this company who provides "Institutional Research, Trading, Investment Management and related Brokerage services to select clients and institutions" will show to the SEC about their "direct primary research and leverage proprietary analytic techniques" which resulted in such extreme BS claims...
...pass the popcorn, please.
Big deal
"saying that 82.6 per cent of 1,500 surveyed US consumers didn't know that BlackBerry 10 had been launched in Canada and Europe."
82.3 % of US consumers think Canada is a small state up north some place where the bad weather comes from, and Europe is some kind of bird.
Finally - someone steps on these cockroaches aka "analysts"...
...like this one, sporting SIX PEOPLE (yes, a real, giant "research" staff, 6 guys in an office), claiming a bunch of stuff you cannot even process without having an incredible number of connections then refusing to even discuss how they arrived to their BS "results"...
...do I smell a handful of scumbag trying to manipulate the stock they/their buddies/neighbors/etc are shorting? Tell me it ain't so...
...but I also love how ElReg's (resident Apple-cheerleader, as I recall?) writer is also piling on with quoting more BS "analyst" opinion, picking out the negative ones while omitting any positive one, when BB is clearly having a momentum going on...
...it became big worldwide pasttime tradition, to talk smack of BB, regardless of facts, it seems. :)
(PS: I'm a hardcore Android user who always hated BB,never owned one but was greatly impressed recently by the Z10's UI in a TMO store.)
Re: sounds absurd
Couple more options:
1) Some guy at Detwiler Fenton heard about this little mobile shop that his buddy's friend runs. Out of the 10 phones they sold last week, two were BlackBerries, and they had three returned at the same time.
2) As mentioned elsewhere, "Our clients and buddies need this stock driven down so they don't take a bath on this sure thing short we told them about!"
I'm going with option #2
Negative and falsified reports are so common about Blackberry now a day. Those reports are generally coming from scum analysts who wrote with the intent to manipulate stock prices. Perhaps these analysts are paid by short-sellers, or brokerage firm with short-selling interests. It is so surprising that Blackberry doesn’t take action to sue these liars even when it came under relentless attacks from false journalism.
