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“In the U.K., we have seen close to three times our best performance ever for the first week of sales for a BlackBerry smartphone,” he said.

While those statements, and reports of sell outs at several retailers, should be encouraging for BlackBerry fans and shareholders, according to RBC Capital Markets analyst Mark Sue, supply of the new BlackBerry Z10 appeared to be limited at some retailers.

RBC’s checks at 40 Rogers, Bell, Telus and Wireless Wave stores in Canada indicate healthy demand for the Z10 as several stores were sold out of the device by the end of its first day on the shelf. Meanwhile, pre-orders hit a record high for BlackBerry at Bell

In an email, Rogers Communications Inc. said it sold more BlackBerry smartphones on Tuesday (Feb. 5) than in any other day in its history, adding that while some Rogers stores have temporarily sold out of the Z10 the company is shipping additional inventory to its stores across Canada..

Mr. Sue noted that RBC checks found that some individual stores have been allocated an average of just 5 to 10 units and an estimated 20 to 30 Z10s for pre-orders, and he expects inventory to remain light for the next several weeks.

“There appears to be meaningful enterprise demand for BlackBerry Z10 and Q10 among existing diehards and even iPhone and Android users,” he said in a note to clients.

“Enterprise upgrades may be delayed several months, given enterprise testing and certification, but RIM’s free software upgrade (to BES 10) and early training may accelerate the process.”