BlackBerry shares stumbled Friday as news broke U.S. retailers have started offering deep discounts on the recently-launched BlackBerry Z10 line of phones.
Shares were down one per cent Friday afternoon after the Wall Street Journal reported that Best Buy slashed prices on the Z10 from $199 U.S. to $49 U.S., with a two-year AT&T contract.
Verizon is now reportedly offering the phone for $99 on a two-year contract.
The Z10 went on sale in the U.S. in March. The discounts are yet another sign that sales are failing to live up to expectations.
BlackBerry announced late last month that it lost $84 million in the first quarter of the year. Many analysts saw it as telling that the company did not break out sales of the Z10 in its earnings report.
(CEO Thorsten Heins eventually told the press the company sold 2.7 million BB10 devices in the first quarter. By comparison, Apple shipped 37.4 million iPhones in the same period.)
At the company’s annual meeting this week, Heins pleaded with shareholders for patience as the company works to bounce back from years of shrinking market share.
"We are still in the midst of a major, complex transition of this company, and like most of these transformations ... progress can be volatile," Heins told the meeting.
According to "people familiar with the matter" who spoke to the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, the Waterloo, Ont.-based company is planning another round of layoffs, on top of the 5,000 people it let go last year.
Also on HuffPost