Posted on 04/02/2014 3:31:40 AM PDT by markomalley
BlackBerry will not renew the license of T-Mobile US to sell its products when it expires later this month, the smartphone maker said.
The announcement by the Canadian company comes after a dispute in February with the fourth-largest carrier in the U.S. for promoting Apple's iPhone 5s at a discount to its BlackBerry customers.
BlackBerry CEO John Chen wrote in a blog post in February that like its loyal customers who expressed outrage to T-Mobile, the company was also outraged by the carrier's move. "What puzzles me more is that T-Mobile did not speak with us before or after they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion," Chen wrote about T-Mobile's email promotion.
T-Mobile CEO John Legere said at the time that the carrier would continue to support BlackBerry products.
Blackberry said late Tuesday that it will not renew the license to T-Mobile to sell BlackBerry products when it expires on April 25. Chen said in a statement the companies' strategies were no longer complementary and hoped to work again with T-Mobile in the future when their business strategies are aligned.
The smartphone company said it was working with other carrier partners to provide consumers and business users with alternatives should they decide to move to another carrier and remain with BlackBerry for the long term.
The company also said it will work closely with T-Mobile to provide "the best possible customer service" to any customer remaining on the T-Mobile US network or to any customer purchasing devices from T-Mobile's existing inventory.
BlackBerry has seen its market share dwindle. In the fourth quarter of 2013, its worldwide share of smartphone operating systems dropped to 0.6 percent for 1.7 million units shipped, compared to the 3.2 percent share for 7.4 million units it had shipped in the same quarter in the previous year, according to research firm IDC.
The BlackBerry operating system was the only smartphone OS to have negative year-over-year change both for the quarter and for the year, IDC said.
Addressing T-Mobile in his February blog post, Chen told the carrier that our "long-standing partnership was once productive and profitable for both BlackBerry and T-Mobile." He said he hoped that "we can find a way forward that allows us to serve our shared customers once again." The current turn of events suggests the rapprochement didn't happen.
ya.. I made a ton of money checking stores to make sure they where properly displayed last summer. No store I went to suggested I buy one.
I was a secret shopper sent to verify it was displayed properly and ask questions about it. I got replies like...
“it’s broken”
“why do you want that?”
“uhhhhhhhhhhh”
“we have one in the back if you really want to see one”
“they drop like flies. you sure you want one?”
THey still have a significant customer base. Many of them government.
I predict that in 5 years, blackberry will be THE desired platform for anyone that is security conscious.
Last place phone and last place carrier divorce, story at 11.
So...T-Mobile was poaching its own customers? I wonder how successful that usually is as a strategy.
Because cutting off one of the main carriers will do such wonderful things for BlackBerry’s remaining market share...
It has been amazing to watch how the once dominant player in the email market has committed suicide over the past 4 or 5 years. This is just another slice of the wrists.
Well, that’ll show ‘em!
(Blackberry must be one of the worst-managed companies in North America.)
They are much safer so many companies still want Blackberry for that reason.
Blackberry is the only platform which can meet certain security requirements.
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