BlackBerry replenishes Z10 stock

New Delhi: Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry on Wednesday replenished stocks of its Z10 touchscreen model that were sold out in India after a 60 per cent discount on the price.

“BlackBerry Z10 has now been restocked across BlackBerry's retail network across the country and on Flipkart.com," the company's director for distribution in India, Sameer Bhatia, said in a statement.

The device will be available for Rs 17,990, according to the statement. BlackBerry launched the Z10 about a year ago for Rs 43,990. The price was dropped to Rs 29,990 in September. On February 25, the company offered the phone at Rs17,990 for a limited period.

The model sold out within a week, although it was available on some e-commerce sites at a 22-50 per cent higher price. Blackberry lowered handset prices in the face of losses due to declining sales and build-up of inventory across the globe.

In December, the company offered incentives on handset sales, especially devices built on its latest platform BB 10. BlackBerry posted a loss of $4.4 billion in its third quarter ended November 30, mainly due to unsold handsets. The company recorded a primarily non-cash, pre-tax charge against inventory and supply commitments of approximately $1.6 billion in the quarter of fiscal 2014, which were Bla-ckBerry 10 devices.

BlackBerry sold about 4.3 million smartphones to users, of which 3.2 million were BlackBerry 7 devices.