Heins declined to comment on early sales of the Z10, which was launched first in the UK, due to the quiet period ahead of its next quarterly report. However, he said the company had been pleasantly surprised by the number of customers leaving rival platforms to come to BB10.
The CEO said BlackBerry was also still studying the possibility of licensing its software, but at the moment was more focused on launching the new phones. He expressed irritation at Lenovo's recent hints of interest in acquiring BlackBerry, calling it "rumours and speculation". He added : "What I specifically don’t like about it, is that it can irritate our investors, our shareholders and our customers. My view always is that you go out to the public when you have something substantial to say. It is not helpful for the industry to have these rumours out there and it is not helpful for my shareholder base either."
Heins also downplayed reports of an imminent launch of a new BlackBerry PlayBook tablet. He admitted the company made mistakes with the original PlayBook launch, but said it had been a useful experiencing in preparing for the BB10 launch. "I wouldn’t want to do it the same way again, if I do something around tablets, I want it to be really substantial and meaningful, and quite frankly it would need to be profitable as well," he said.
