BlackBerry Z10 Release Date Frenzy: Some UK Retailers Sell Out of New Smartphone in Opening Weekend

BlackBerry says sales of its new Z10 smartphone running its BlackBerry 10 operating system were so good during its opening weekend that many UK retailers sold out.

"U.K. mobile phones retailer Phones 4u has confirmed that a majority of its stores sold out of the first BlackBerry 10 handset in its first weekend of sales," writes TechCrunch.

"Phones 4u said 55 per cent of its 680 stores sold out of both black and white versions of the Z10."

Of course, there are no public figures stating how many BlackBerry Z10s those retail store stocked in the first place. That said, retailers try to gauge interest and base stock on that, so at the very least, the Z10 is more popular than Phones 4u thought it would be.

The BlackBerry Z10 doesn't hit the U.S. until March, so earlier releases in the U.K. and Canada could give clues to how popular it will be in America (and offer the chance for hands-on reviews).

"BlackBerry's new Z10 touch screen smartphone has gotten off to a better start in Britain than any of the company's previous models," writes the Los Angeles Times, citing statements from BlackBerry.

"In the UK, we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone," said BlackBerry president and CEO Thorsten Heins in a statement.

And BlackBerry could be poaching users from Android and iPhone, which would be key to expanding their market share.

"It's beyond expectations," Heins said. "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. That is an interesting data point."

But BlackBerry's target might be Windows Phone, as the company has stated they want BlackBerry 10 to be the third largest mobile operating system, behind iOS and Android.