Business

Wallflower of a day for new BlackBerry

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Shares of smartphone maker BlackBerry got slammed yesterday — and it was as though investors knew what was happening inside AT&T’s Rockefeller Center store.

On its first day on the shelf, the new BlackBerry Z10 had a hard time attracting customers at the Midtown Manhattan location.

There were no customers lining up to buy it. In fact, there weren’t even signs heralding its arrival at the store.

No, the new BlackBerry — its touchscreen redesign saddled with the pressure of saving the company — sat lonely in a nondescript corner among a row of rivals.

By comparison, the iPhone 5 had its own wing with a giant poster and two demo devices. Not that Apple’s phone needs the help.

Eric Rudich, 41, was picking up the iPhone 5, having switched from BlackBerry years ago. The AT&T team at least tried to turn his attention to the BlackBerry Z10, he said.

“They let me know the new BlackBerry was available today. I said, ‘That’s OK,’ ” Rudich said.

BlackBerry’s stock fell 7.7 percent, closing at $14.91 yesterday.

Consumers do have the option of ordering the phone online, which certainly could have shortened lines on launch day — and made it hard to gauge demand.

Still, it seemed yesterday that there was more enthusiasm for Nintendo’s upcoming “Luigi’s Mansion” release. A few people were camping out at a nearby Nintendo store.

At 2:30 p.m., one AT&T store employee said no Z10s had been sold. Also, few people were asking about the device.

In fact, BlackBerry was losing customers there. Rushabh Sakhpar, 21, just moved to America from India, and his first priority, he said, was ditching his BlackBerry for the LG Nexus 4, which he picked up yesterday.

BlackBerry didn’t return a request for comment yesterday, but AT&T said it was still too early to predict how the Z10 will fare.