BlackBerry Fires Its Head Of US Sales Following Poor Sales Of Its New Smartphones

BlackBerry quietly fired its head of US Sales, Richard Piasentin, last month.

The Wall Street Journal confirmed Piasentin's ouster following BlackBerry's shareholder's meeting yesterday.

The departure shouldn't be much of a surprise. BlackBerry's newest phone, the BlackBerry Z10, hasn't sold very well in the US since its launch in spring. Analysts predicted weak demand for the phone from the day it launched. And BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins seemed say as much during the shareholder's meeting yesterday when he was quoted as saying "there were many lessons learned" with the US launch.

When BlackBerry reported its quarterly earnings a few days ago, it said it only sold 2.7 million devices running its new operating system called BlackBerry 10. The company is making a big bet that BlackBerry 10 will be a hit and help turn the company around, but so far it looks like things are off to a slow start. Aside from the low BlackBerry 10 sales, the company also reported a $84 million loss for last quarter.