The Wall Street Journal said that sales of BlackBerry’s Q10 smartphone – its first QWERTY device powered by the BlackBerry 10 platform – have been “dismal”, based on comments from retail and operator executives in the US and Canada.

According to the report, one owner of 16 stores said that “we saw virtually no demand for the Q10 and eventually returned most to our equipment vendor”.  And an executive at an unnamed Canadian operator said: “”I think we’d all say that the Q10, the one we all thought was going to be the saviour, just hit the ground and died.”

It was mooted that corporate sales – which traditionally take longer than consumer deals – may see the Q10 getting a boost in the future. But with it also claimed that sales of the earlier, all-touch Z10 had run out of steam, the omens for BlackBerry’s next quarterly results do not look good.

The Q10 had been seen as something of an easier sell for BlackBerry than the Z10, due to the lack of competition in the QWERTY device space, and its strong heritage (and customer base) in this market. The company is also rolling out its Q5, a lower-priced sibling for the Q10 intended to enable BlackBerry to build on its strong position in some emerging markets.

Thorsten Heins, CEO of the struggling smartphone maker, previously said that Q10 sales are expected to number in the “tens of millions” range.