Flora Sun's Blog

T-Mobile announced to stop stocking BlackBerry phones in its stores. While they still endorse up to twenty different kinds of BlackBerry smartphones in their retail stores, the smartphone will be delivered to the customers directly from BlackBerry instead of being delivered from the retail stores.

After losing one billion dollars, BlackBerry faces another problem, now they are losing channels to distribute their products. We know that the smart phone market is extremely competitive and this year Apple introduced iphone 5S and 5C to the market followed with Samsung’s Galaxy S4 and Note III. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile definitely want these new smartphones to be available in their stores first rather than filling in their warehouse with BlackBerry.

From the operation point of view, sending phones directly to the customers can get rid of the “middlemen”, thus save money. However, losing T-Mobile means that BlackBerry needs to cover the shipping fees from its own pocket. Also, since the demand of BlackBerry is declining, BlackBerry probably needs to send their products individually rather than collectively. This means that shipping fees can be doubled for BlackBerry.

Bibliography:

1. “BlackBerry announces $1 billion loss, plans to cut 4,500 workers.” . TULSA WORLD, 21 Seotember 2013. Web. 29 Sep 2013. <http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/BlackBerry_announces_1_billion_loss_plans_to_cut_4500/20130921_52_E2_TORONT14525?subj=52>.

2. Zacks Equity Research, . “T-Mobile U.S. Stops BlackBerry Retail.” Yahoo Finance. YAHOO, 27 Sep 2013. Web. 29 Sep 2013. <http://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/t-mobile-u-stops-blackberry-181555757.html>.