T-Mobile CEO John Legere seems confident in BlackBerry's ability to turn its fortunes around. According to Legere, BlackBerry is "on a comeback."
It's no big secret that the Canadian smartphone maker has been struggling in recent years, after losing significant ground to rivals. Once at the top of the food chain, BlackBerry saw an increasing number of users ditching its ecosystem for Android, iOS and even Windows Phone.
BlackBerry has been trying to keep its head above water and regain at least some of its lost market share, making notable efforts to lure more customers. The smartphone market is increasingly fierce however, and BlackBerry's latest move to switch to Android might be the best decision it made yet.
The BlackBerry Priv launched just recently as the very first Android handset from BlackBerry, fueling hopes that the company will make a comeback. At least one person seems to believe it will make it, as T-Mobile's John Legere is optimistic about BlackBerry's future.
The CEO's comment is surprising not only because it comes at a time when many are still skeptical regarding BlackBerry's relevance, but also because BlackBerry and T-Mobile had a serious rough spot and severed their relationship a while back. It was only earlier this year that the two companies revived their collaboration, with the BlackBerry Classic joining T-Mobile's portfolio back in May.
At the same time, the first U.S. carrier to start selling the new BlackBerry Priv is AT&T, not T-Mobile. Nevertheless, the Uncarrier might start offering the BlackBerry Android smartphone soon enough.
BlackBerry, for its part, appreciates T-Mobile's support and collaboration and is looking forward to the future.
"I'm energized about our renewed relationship with T-Mobile and I'm excited about what 2016 will bring [as] we continue to move forward together," BlackBerry CEO John Chen told CNET.
Legere's response that BlackBerry was on a comeback was not the only interesting comment, however. The same word-association game in the interview in question also asked T-Mobile COO Mike Sievert to give one-word answers for various company names. When "AT&T" came up, Sievert's answer was "greedy."
As a reminder, when Legere played the word-association game with CNET for the first time, his answer to AT&T was "sucks," while his association for Verizon was "worse."
