BlackBerry can still make a comeback, believes John Legere, T-Mobile’s CEO. Legere’s comment came in response to a word association game that the CEO and T-Mobile’s Chief Operating Officer, Mike Sievert, played with CNET last week.
T-Mobile supports BlackBerry comeback
During the game, when asked to share his thoughts on BlackBerry, Legere said, “On a comeback.” Legere’s response about BlackBerry was the most insightful answer from the game. Legere, who is known for his sarcastic responses, refrained from doing so and let his lieutenant take on the role. Sievert called AT&T “greedy,” while he said Sprint is “in a tough spot.”
Legere’s response to Verizon and Sprint was “red” and “school bus,” respectively. This is in sharp contrast to his last word association game with CNET in September 2014 when he called AT&T “sucks” and said Verizon was “worse.” When asked about net neutrality, which is the principle of equal treatment of Internet traffic, Legere responded “supportive.” Several critics accuse T-Mobile of hurting net neutrality with its unlimited streaming program “Binge On.”
Support comes at a crucial time
BlackBerry is making sincere efforts to get back in the race even though its new handsets are not very popular and its smartphone market share has reduced to an almost negligible level. As a result, many remain skeptical about the Canadian firm’s prospects, so hearing such optimistic words at such a time comes as a surprise as T-Mobile and BlackBerry had a spat in 2014. However, now all is well between them as represented by Legere’s statement on BlackBerry. T-Mobile offered its customers the opportunity to buy the BlackBerry Classic in May at the same time the duo started to mend their relationship.
BlackBerry released its first Android-based device called the Priv this month, and the first carrier to sell the device in the U.S. is AT&T. T-Mobile does not carry the device now, but it may offer the device going forward.
“While we don’t carry the Priv right now, we may have something to report soon. We are definitely talking with BlackBerry,” a T-Mobile spokeswoman said.
BlackBerry is happy with the support it is getting from T-Mobile. On Sunday in an email, CEO John Chen said, “I’m energized about our renewed relationship with T-Mobile and I’m excited about what 2016 will bring we continue to move forward together.”
