FIGHT! BlackBerry,T-Mobile US CEOs clash in 'inappropriate' ad spat

Wireless carrier T-Mobile US would like to see its BlackBerry customers switch over to Apple's camp – and die-hard BlackBerry users are none too happy about it, to say nothing of BlackBerry CEO John Chen. The brouhaha began last week, when T-Mobile US reportedly sent emails to some of its customers offering them financing on …

[LarsG]

A dying breed, needs to be placed in a breeding program and mated with fresh DNA for it to survive.

[Big_Ted]

It already has or have you been sleeping through the release of BB10 and its many updates....

Also new phones to go with the new OS.

At least the new OS on blackberrys is more than going pastel like another one.

Try one, you will be impressed with it.

[Mr Atoz]

Agreed. I find the Apple iOS interface very clunky, navigating on an iPad is horrendous compared to bb10. I'm forced to use iOS devices by my employer but I would rather not. Doing the basics like transferring files to and from the device is a major pain and then getting access to those files by the appropriate app is another.

[tangerine Sedge]

too little too late

No-one cares about BB10! It doesn't matter how good it is in terms of H/W or S/W, it doesn't have a unique selling point anymore (BBM) and it certainly doesn't have an application store to match IOS or Android in terms of quantity or quality.

Unless they can bring something unque and useful to the game then they are destined to fail. What we are seeing at the moment is a company dying in front of our eyes, the vultures are circling for the the IPR.

[Anonymous Coward]

"It already has or have you been sleeping through the release of BB10 and its many updates...."

With the best will in the world, far too little, far too late. It's hard to see how they can turn this around. I can see them leveraging BES to ultimately provide superior handset management and security for other platforms, and that conceivably being their path forward, but their battle to stay relevant in the handset market is over and they lost.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Wireless carrier T-Mobile US would like to see its BlackBerry customers switch over to Apple's camp – and die-hard BlackBerry users are none too happy about it"

I'm not suprised they are unhappy - Windows Phone is a much better fit!

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows Phone is a much better fit!

Indeed, another floundering mobile OS is much more appropriate!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Windows Phone is a much better fit!

If you were talking about Windows 8/8.1 or Surface RT then sure, but there's nothing 'floundering' about Windows Phone 8. It might have a small percentage of market share, but it's showing solid growth.

There's a multitude of reasons to criticise Microsoft, but for the decisions they largely get right? Not so much.

[Chad H.]

>>>"What puzzles me more is that T-Mobile US did not speak with us before or after they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion,"

Well why should they? Blackberry has made a point about being as far away from the end device user as they can.

[sabroni]

TMobile aren't the end device user.

What are you talking about?

[Anonymous Coward]

Blackberry who?

I assume t-mobile have to run a BES type server/application layer to support the blackberry users? If so, then it's a wise choice to reduce the number of BB users to a minimum so that they can turn off the servers and save money.

Anyway, since BB dropped the playbook (a great device hampered by hopeless S/W, i.e. Safari on my iphone is more reliable than their abortion of a browser), I don't care what happens to them.

They are a dead-fruit walking....

[Chad H.]

Re: Blackberry who?

>>>I assume t-mobile have to run a BES type server/application layer to support the blackberry users? If so, then it's a wise choice to reduce the number of BB users to a minimum so that they can turn off the servers and save money.

Once upon a time thats pretty much what happened, it was called the Blackberry Prosumer Service, and basically meant that Blackberry were constantly polling and repelling everyones POP3 Account.

However I understand in the meantime something has changed, such that newer Blackberries no longer need access to the specific blackberry internet service that BES and prosumer ran over.

[Fihart]

preaching to the converted

People I know have already switched from Blackberry to iPhone.

Nothing unique to Blackberry appeals to me about my Blackberry phone. Having today for the first time used it to send email to multiple users with multiple attachments I can report that this task was easier with my 4 year old Nokia E71.

I don't quite get BB fanbois.