T-Mobile dropping BlackBerry from in-store retail selection
Did Thorsten Heins recently break a mirror? Is one of BlackBerry’s offices on top of an ancient Indian burial ground? Because the company sure seems to have been seeing some especially bad luck lately. Maybe the proposed sale isn’t technically bad luck, so long as it keeps the company going, but it’s not ideal, either. But then we also have that aborted cross-platform BBM launch, and today get news that T-Mobile is pulling all BlackBerry handsets from its retail stores.
Sure, T-Mobile will continue to sell BlackBerry phones like the Z10 and Q10 through its website, but removing the phones from the carrier’s brick-and-mortar stores may effectively kill casual sales to customers not already specifically looking to pick up a new BlackBerry.
To be fair, though, a lack of shoppers like that in the first place sounds like precisely why T-Mobile is even making this decision. It sees the majority of its BlackBerry sales come from business customers, and they’re not usually the type to head in-store for a phone purchase. By moving BlackBerry stock to direct ship fulfillment, T-Mobile hopes to make more efficient use of its inventory.
Source: Los Angeles Times
