T-Mobile USA, Inc. (TMUS) will stop selling BlackBerry smartphones due to poor sales. The carrier will continue to sell the phones through their online store, though. Executive vice president David Carey claims that keeping stock of the phones in the retail distribution system was inefficient. He added that most BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) sales come from business customers, who don’t generally make purchasing decisions.
BlackBerry still available in other stores
Fortunately, not all is lost for the Canadian tech giant. AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) sent confirmations to All Things D reminding them that they will continue selling BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) devices in stores. Verizon also expressed strong interest in the upcoming BlackBerry Z30 phablet. Sprint hasn’t confirmed their stance on the matter.
T-Mobile’s discontinuation reason
Interesting enough, it appears that T-Mobile USA, Inc. (TMUS) is responding to BlackBerry’s recent decision to focus on the enterprise market rather than the consumer market. Now BlackBerry Ltd (NASDAQ:BBRY) (TSE:BB) is facing a $1 billion charge on their report for second fiscal quarter. Last Friday, they were supposed to discuss quarterly results, but the analyst call was canceled. BlackBerry also signed a letter of intent with Fairfax Financial Holdings, which has offered to take over BlackBerry for $4.7 billion to make the smartphone brand private. Fairfax is taking the lead in a group of investors, but the mentioned investors are as of yet unknown. The chief executive officer for Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd (OTCMKTS:FRFHF) (TSE:FFH), Prem Watsa, believes the company will raise enough funds to complete the buy. He said, “We wouldn’t put our name to such a high-profile deal if we didn’t feel confident that at the end of the day that our due diligence would be fine and we’d be able to finance it.”
The smartphone maker’s days as a consumer favorite are over, but there is still a little bit of hope for the company, especially if they can keep their focus on business customers. The company is also rolling out their popular BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) service to other platforms, including iOS and Android in hopes of maintaining consumer interest.
