Vanishing BlackBerry stocks leave partners in distress

Was it a marketing gimmick? Was it a desperate attempt for stock clearance? Or a smartly conceived New Year gift? Whatsoever be the case, the authorized partners as well as multi-brand resellers of BlackBerry are unhappy. This raises the question with regard to the intention of the company. The Indian IT resellers ran out of their Playbook stocks after the Canada based Research In Motion (RIM) slashed its prices by 50%. The market scenario post this disastrous gimmick has left everybody in a state of annoyance as the partners were rendered stock-less or with minimal stock.

The offer was made in the last week of December valid till December 31, but owing to the huge response from the customers, RIM decided to extend the offer for a week till January 7, 2012. The discounted prices of the Playbooks are Rs 13,490 for 16GB, Rs 15,990 for 32GB, and Rs 24,490 for 64GB. In addition to the price-cut, multi- tasking features as well as dual core processor of the tablets might also have pumped the sales.

This move in return saw a tremendous response from consumers to an extent that there is no stock available with IT partners throughout India as replenishment from the company never came to them.

Speaking to The DQ Week, George Thomas, CEO, Aldous Glare Trade and Exports (AGTE), BlackBerry tablets reseller from Kerala said, "We ran out of stock in 3 days after the offer was released. There was a huge demand from the consumers but BlackBerry did not release any further stock." Voicing similar opinion, Dinesh Nair, VP, AGTE, Bengaluru said, "The offer provided by BlackBerry saw tremendous response and 16GB and 32GB versions were sold out quickly and now there are no stock available in Bengaluru."

Ahmedabad based, Harvinder Singh Bagga, owner of BlackBerry Experience Stores, said, "The sales definitely boomed up ten times after the offer but due to unavailability of the stocks just after 3 days we were not able to capitalize. There was no point extending the offer to another week as vendors are not supplying the Playbook in the market. Due to the quality of the features of Black- Berry, consumers still ask for more but we are helpless."

The annoyance was to an extent that a reseller received 700 calls since the time the offer released in the market. Some resellers also feel that the offer was just a brand pull before launching its upgraded Playbook in February.

Delhi based reseller, Rajeev Mehta CEO, Zest Systems, said, "After the offer, the company gave me only 2 playbooks though I have 3 stores; and I was unable to meet the demands of the consumers. I think it might be some kind of brand image creation before the launch."

This move may be attributed to RIM's global loss of around $485 mn and also the fact that tablet sales did not meet the expectation. More or less, it was considered as a failed product by many in the industry. In such a scenario, a move of announcing a lucrative scheme for end-users is now raising several speculations. Whatever it be, the truth is this 'New Year Gift' from the company has only left the partners annoyed.