Sales of new BlackBerry in UK better than expected, says chief The chief executive of BlackBerry has boasted that sales of its new device, launched last week, have boomed in the UK. Thorsten Hein, of the Canadian company that last week changed its name from Research In Motion, needs the new BlackBerry 10 operating system to take off after a tough few years that saw the company lose out to Apple and Samsung. Critics said the BlackBerry was outdated, and speculated that the company would have to be broken up and sold off. Sales in the UK have exceeded the firm's hopes, Mr Hein insisted, with a substantial number of users moving from other platforms to try the device. "It's beyond expectations," he said. White is sold out already. The black is hard to stock up again. It's very encouraging. Mr Hein admitted to disappointment that the BlackBerry 10 will not be released in the US until March, pointing out that the US and its phone carriers have a rigid testing system. "We need to respect that," he said.