T-Mobile Reboots With BlackBerry

By Thomas Gryta 

T-Mobile US Inc. and BlackBerry Ltd. are burying the hatchet.

The two underdogs--a formerly struggling wireless carrier and a fallen-star smartphone pioneer--went through a very public split last year. But they have mended ties, and T-Mobile will begin selling the BlackBerry Classic beginning next week, conveniently timed with the carrier's new push to capture business customers.

A T-Mobile spokeswoman said the company listened to customers in bringing back BlackBerry. The carrier will offer the BlackBerry Classic starting next week for $440, or about $18 a month over two years. It has supported the devices on its network, but hasn't sold them for nearly two years.

The BlackBerry has fallen hard from its peak. The primarily keyboarded device had 53% of the U.S. smartphone market in the first quarter of 2009, according to research firm IDC. That market share is now less than 1%, according to IDC.

But the devices still resonate with some customers. Business users popularized the devices, and many still mourn the shift to touchscreen smartphones.

While BlackBerry fell, T-Mobile turned itself around. The company has added millions of new customers and is now trying to get a foothold in the business market. In March, it announced a flat-fee pricing model for enterprise customers that it claims is less expensive and simpler than the offerings of bigger carriers like AT&T Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc.

The split between T-Mobile and BlackBerry started early last year, when T-Mobile emailed some BlackBerry customers encouraging them to switch to using Apple Inc.'s iPhone. The marketing produced an outcry from BlackBerry devotees and Chief Executive John Chen, who called the move "inappropriate and ill-conceived."

T-Mobile CEO John Legere said BlackBerry users were about 1% of the carrier's customer base. BlackBerry later severed ties, saying the two companies' strategies weren't complementary.

Write to Thomas Gryta at [e-mail]

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