Ina Fried

Recent Posts by Ina Fried

T-Mobile Plans to Pare Its In-Store Supply of BlackBerrys, While AT&T and Verizon Plan to Keep Them in Stock

T-Mobile said on Thursday that it plans to stop carrying BlackBerry phones on its store shelves, though it will continue to sell them online and let customers order the devices from its retail locations.

blackberry_sinkhole

“T-Mobile continues to support the BlackBerry platform,” a T-Mobile representative told AllThingsD. “The T-Mobile retail channel is moving toward fulfillment via direct-ship for BlackBerry devices, rather than in-store inventory. A customer will still see a phone on the shelf. If inventory is not available in the store, the device can be ordered.”

The move comes amid mass layoffs and very sluggish sales of BlackBerry 10 devices, as well as the company’s plan to sell itself to a large shareholder.

AT&T, meanwhile, said it is not pulling the plug on BlackBerry, at least for now.

“We continue to carry BlackBerry devices in our stores,” AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel told AllThingsD.

Verizon announced last week on Twitter that it planned to carry BlackBerry’s upcoming Z30 smartphone. Verizon said it continues to sell online and in stores.

“We’re going to support our customers and give them options on how to buy from us,” Verizon said.

Sprint declined to comment.

For its part, BlackBerry said it is working with carriers to find models that line up with sales.

“BlackBerry is focused on serving users who want to be highly productive at work and on the go,” a BlackBerry spokesman told AllThingsD. “As such, we will be working with our carrier partners to deliver BlackBerry 10 to these power users in a variety of ways — based on carrier preference — through the channel, in-store or online.”

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I think the NSA has a job to do and we need the NSA. But as (physicist) Robert Oppenheimer said, “When you see something that is technically sweet, you go ahead and do it and argue about what to do about it only after you’ve had your technical success. That is the way it was with the atomic bomb.”

— Phil Zimmerman, PGP inventor and Silent Circle co-founder, in an interview with Om Malik