Struggling BlackBerry got another piece of bad news this week when T-Mobile USA — the country’s fourth largest wireless carrier — said that it will stop carrying BlackBerry devices at its stores.
Reuters reports that Verizon and AT&T continue to sell BlackBerry devices at retail, and that T-Mobile will continue to ship devices to customers.
“The T-Mobile retail channel is moving toward fulfillment via direct ship for BlackBerry devices, rather than in-store inventory,” a T-Mobile spokesperson told CNET. “A customer will still see a phone on the shelf. If inventory is not available in the store, the device can be ordered.”
Meanwhile, Reuters also reports that the $4.7 billion private equity bid for BlackBerry from Fairfax Financial Holdings and others may not materialize. The company, which has struggled to compete with Samsung and Apple, now has a market value of $4.2 billion.
This chart from IDC shows some of the challenges facing BlackBerry:
In other news, T-Mobile CFO Braxton Carter told Reuters this week that more consolidation could occur in the wireless market, and he suggested that a deal with Sprint could inevitably occur.
“It’s the logical ultimate combination,” he told Reuters, not commenting specifically on whether talks had occurred between the two companies. “It is not a question of if but a question of when there is further consolidation in our industry.”
