BlackBerry Z10 prices come crashing down to as low as $49

BlackBerry cut prices for its flagship smartphone to $49 and $99.



The BlackBerry Z10 is now selling for $99 at AT&T and Verizon, while

Amazon is selling it at $49. The price drop is aimed at breathing life

into sales for the Canadian company, which lost $84 million in the

most recent quarter.



"Now is the right time to adjust the price," a BlackBerry spokesperson

told the Wall Street Journal. "It's part of life cycle management to

tier the pricing for current devices to make room for the next ones."



That could mean that the company is selling the stock on shelves now

before it launches a second-generation smartphone with the same Z10

DNA. The price cut from the original $199 price just four months ago

isn't a good sign for BlackBerry, formerly known as Research in

Motion.



Thorsten Heins, chief executive of BlackBerry, acknowledged that the

launch of the latest smartphones in the U.S. didn't go as well as it

hoped. BlackBerry also let go its head of U.S. sales, Richard

Piasentin last month. It's an uphill battle for BlackBerry to gain

market share in a field crowded with devices based on Apple's iOS,

Google Android, and Windows Phone.



Kantar Worldpanel, a market researcher, said that in the three months

ending May 2012 that BlackBerry had 4.6 percent market share, compared

to more than 50 percent a few years back.