Judging from the first wave of reviews of the BlackBerry Passport, it is safe to say that many are quite smitten with BlackBerry’s latest smartphone efforts. In fact last we heard, the handset was so popular that BlackBerry actually ran out of stock on its official website. Now the question is, how many BlackBerry Passport devices have been sold so far? Well according to a report from Bloomberg’s Businessweek, it seems that BlackBerry has managed to sell 200,000 Passport smartphones since its release. BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen confirmed that they did indeed sell out of the phones not just on their website in 6 hours, but they also managed to sell out on Amazon in 10 hours as well.
BlackBerry Ltd. says it has sold 200,000 Passport smartphones, which are profitable at the current price points of $599 in the U.S. and C$699 ($627) in Canada. The square-screened Passport sold out in 6 hours on BlackBerry’s website and within 10 hours on Amazon.com, Chief Executive Officer John Chen said today on the company’s earnings conference call. BlackBerry unveiled the Passport two days ago, pitching it as a productivity-focused device for business users, as opposed to the iPhone’s general consumer base. Apple Inc.’s new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus saw record demand, with more than 10 million sold in their debut last weekend. The Passport is BlackBerry’s first major new device introduced globally since Chen was named CEO in November, the same day that a planned buyout of the company collapsed. With a 4.5-inch (11.4-centimeter) screen and a physical qwerty keyboard that doubles as a touch-sensitive swipe pad, the Passport is focused on work productivity.
