BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said early sales of the company’s Z10 smartphone in the UK are blowing past what the firm had expected. “It’s beyond expectations,” Heins said in an interview. “White is sold out already. The black is hard to stock up again. It’s very encouraging. I won’t share the number because I need to verify it, but we are getting a substantial number of users moving from other platforms to BlackBerry.”

Heins said that BlackBerry needs to regain relevance in the US market in order to be successful. The company’s US market share plunged from a peak of 46 per cent of the market in 2008 to 2 per cent in 2012. “We need to win back market share to be relevant,” Heins said.

FierceWireless: BlackBerry's Heins: Initial BlackBerry 10 response is 'beyond expectations'; TelecomTV content partner.