Canadian smartphone makers BlackBerry launched BlackBerry Z10 in India at a whopping price of ₹43,490 on 25 February and the Twitterati have expressed surprise and anger over the smartphone's price tag.
BlackBerry Z10 which runs on its new BlackBerry 10 platform was launched at an event in Mumbai by Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor.
The price of BlackBerry Z10 was among the top trends of the micro-blogging site for past two days, and people used the platform to criticise the sky-high price.
It was noted that only the price of BlackBerry Z10 was trending on Twitter while the name of phone, its specs and features found no place on its trend's list.
Have a look at some of the funny tweets:
"BlackBerry Z10 for ₹43,490 is giving tough competition to Bajaj Discover, Splendor and Passion."
"#BB10 phone launched in India at ₹43,490. It has this remarkable feature where friends laugh at you if you still have a Blackberry. :P"
"Lava mobiles showroom costs ₹43,490"
"Canadian dollar gained 50% after Blackberry priced its Z 10 at ₹43,490"
"Whenever I ask people "Why should anyone buy Blackberry Z10 for ₹43,490?" They start talking like Manmohan Singh."
"BlackBerry Z10 for ₹43,490? Are they selling it by the kilo?"
"I'll rather buy 43940 eclairs and distribute it for free, than pay ₹43,490 for a blackberyy"
"BlackBerry Z10 launched, priced at ₹43,490. Yaaaaaaaaaay! Let's check out my PF & Gratuity..."
"Z 10 for ₹43,490. Seems BlackBerry has seriously taken Justice Katju's comment that 99% Indians are fools"
"I went with ₹43,490 in my pocket by bus to purchase Blackberry 10 today... Came back on new Bike, with some savings."
"₹43,490 for a Blackberry is like releasing a Tusshar Kapoor movie in an IMAX theatre.....and then setting the ticket prices at ₹1500."
"₹43, 490 for a phone that doesn't have FM Radio!"
"BlackBerry for ₹43,490 RGV can make 3 movies in that budget."
"@sahil_dodia rs. 43,490?! I thought it said 4490."
"Wrong decimal place position for the Blackberry Z10 at ₹43,490. :P"
Defending the price of Blackberry Z10, Black-Berry India MD Sunil Dutt in an interview with Economic Times said, "There is huge growth happening in the ₹5,000-₹7,000 market. We don't want to be there. Because we feel very strongly-we've done surveys-our customers also do not want us to be there; they don't want the aspirational level of the brand to get compromised in any way. Our prices start at ₹9,500 and go up to ₹1 lakh plus."
"Now we are bringing in Z10, which is not going to be price driven but platform driven. It is going be driven by what the smartphone is capable of doing, because in the minds of consumers price is not a barrier," he added.
