While it might be raining and pouring a bit for embattled BlackBerry – formerly Research in Motion, until shareholders officially approved the name change this past Tuesday — it might be an even worse sign for the beleaguered smartphone manufacturer that one of the company's latest phones, the BlackBerry Z10, is just so darn cheap.

How cheap? Those interested in picking up a BlackBerry Z10 can acquire it with a 50 percent discount from AT&T or Verizon directly -- $99 instead of its asking price of $199 as of the device's launch all of four months prior. And that's not even the worst of it. Those price-shopping around a little bit will be able to find the Z10 for just $49 at Amazon or Best Buy.

According to Blackberry representatives, speaking to the Wall Street Journal, the new pricing is a completely normal move.

"Now is the right time to adjust the price," said an unnamed spokesperson. "It's part of life cycle management to tier the pricing for current devices to make room for the next ones."

That's a bit of a more neutral response compared to comments CEO Thorsten Heins was delivering at the aforementioned shareholder meeting last week. When asked specifically about the Z10 launch by one shareholder who commented that it seemed to be a bit of "a disaster," Heins disagreed. Sort-of.

"Were we perfect at the launch?" Heins said. "Probably not. Was it a disaster? I don't think so."

That, coupled with a few additional facts, has pundits pondering what might actually be going on over at BlackBerry. Take the price drop into consideration alongside the company's Q1 stats: An $84 million loss with 6.8 million smartphones shipped, a rate just below the 7.7-million (or so) figure that analysts would have just been "OK" with.

There's also the market share of the BlackBerry operating systems in total: 2.9 percent during the first Q1 of 2013, a bit of a drop from the already low 6.4 percent market share BlackBerry operating systems enjoyed during Q1 of 2012. According to the latest figures from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech, BlackBerry's overall market share for smartphones was just 0.7 percent in the U.S. for the three months ending in May of this year – and even that's down from the same time period last year, when BlackBerry enjoyed a 4.6 percent market share.

Heins' response? The company is in the second phase of a three-step transition (the third step being a return to profitability), and that investors need to remain patient.

''Our transformation is ongoing and it is in no way easy, as many challenges are still remaining in front of us,'' he said, as reported by Bloomberg. ''But, we are realistic about what is required to move our transformation forward in a timely manner towards the success.''

By: DocMemory
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