T-Mobile to Stop Stocking BlackBerry Phones in Stores

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blackberry 630 rimmThe blows keep coming for struggling handset maker BlackBerry (BBRY).

On Wednesday, a senior executive at T-Mobile (TMUS) told Reuters that the wireless carrier will no longer stock BlackBerry smartphones at its stores nationwide. The nation’s fourth largest wireless network will continue to sell BlackBerry devices, but will ship them directly to buyers.

The executive cited falling demand for BlackBerry devices as driving the decision. He noted that maintaining inventories of the Canadian maker’s handsets at consumer-oriented stores was inefficient as the devices are now mostly purchased by businesses.

BlackBerry devices will still be displayed in T-Mobile stores for those consumers still interested in them. However, BlackBerry itself has signaled that it is abandoning the consumer market in order to concentrate fully on business buyers.

Once the dominant name in smartphones, BlackBerry has seen its market share evaporate under competition from Apple‘s (AAPL) iPhone and smartphones running Google‘s (GOOG) Android operating system. BlackBerry warned investors that it will post a massive loss for the most recent quarter.

Despite the news, shares of BlackBerry rose more than 1% in Thursday morning trading.


Article printed from InvestorPlace Media, https://investorplace.com/2013/09/t-mobile-to-stop-stocking-blackberry-phones-in-stores/.

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