T-Mobile plans to cease offering BlackBerry phones at its retail stores. It will continue to offer them online and ship them directly to customers.
The company said that, “Keeping stock in the retail distribution system was inefficient,” according to David Carey, T-Mobile’s executive vice president for corporate services. Carey noted that there is little demand for BlackBerries and most purchases are made by businesses. Earlier this week, BlackBerry announced that it had signed a letter of intent with Fairfax Financial that could lead to a sale of the company to a consortium of private bankers.
BlackBerry said it will take a $1 billion charge in order to write-down inventory of unsold Z10 smartphones and slash 4,700 jobs.
