London, Feb 6 : The sales of the new generation of BlackBerry smartphones in Britain have been better than expected, the chief executive of the firm, Thorsten Heins, has said.

Heins hailed the success of his company''s latest devices and said he is confident that Blackberry can make up ground lost to Apple and Android.

Heins said a substantial number of UK users are moving from other platforms to BlackBerry and said that is an encouraging sign because they first targeted long-time BlackBerry users, the Daily Mail reports.

BlackBerry shares closed up 15 per cent on initial reports of strong UK sales and after an analyst upgraded the stock.

That came after a 12 per cent fall in value immediately following the launch.

Heins has said that the real struggle for the revamped company, formerly known as Research In Motion, will come with the U. S. launch slated for mid-March, the report said. (ANI)