For a smartphone maker whose turnaround effort hasn’t quite gone as planned, forcing it into a strategic review of its business options, even the small victories are cause for celebration.
No surprise, then, that BlackBerry today issued a press release touting a small order for its new Q10 smartphone. Evidently, Hispanic broadcaster Univision Communications has agreed to purchase 2,000 units of the keyboarded handset, which it will use to upgrade all corporate-issued BlackBerrys.
Hardly a large order. Indeed, it’s woefully small compared to the purchases BlackBerry typically touts via press release. Recall that, back in March, the company announced a one-million-handset deal.
Which is not to say that smaller handset orders like these aren’t victories. Just that BlackBerry’s announcement of it on its own is curious. If the company is having trouble landing big enterprise orders for its new handsets, its best hope is to score lots and lots of smaller ones. That a pioneering smartphone vendor of BlackBerry’s size and history announced this small Univision buy on its own today suggests that perhaps the company is having trouble landing those smaller orders, as well. And that’s not a good sign.
If BlackBerry is landing larger enterprise engagements, where are the announcements? If it’s racking up smaller buys, why weren’t those noted along with Univision adding more heft to today’s press release?
