It's a major blow, but BlackBerry isn't about to dump all of its BlackBerry 10 devices as was asserted in an email to government employees. The U.S. Senate will no longer use BlackBerry devices, but people will still be able to buy the Q10 and other BlackBerry 10 handsets.
A message sent on Wednesday to chief clerks, administrative managers and system administrators announces that the U.S. Senate would no longer officially issue BlackBerry devices to Senate staffers.
Thanks to a reputation for security and devices with physical keyboards, BlackBerry has been the vendor of choice among government officials for more than a decade now. However, over the years, Android and iOS have been crowding BlackBerry out of the market.
So battered by rivals and abandoned by many of its corporate clients, it should come as little surprise that the Senate is stepping away from the troubled handset manufacturer. The real surprise may have been a line in the letter stating that BlackBerry has notified AT&T and Verizon that it has discontinued all production of BlackBerry OS 10 devices.
The letter indicated that there were still about 610 BlackBerry 10 devices still in the hands of Senate staffers and announced that there is no guarantee future carrier orders will be fulfilled, "due to limited remaining stock."
"Once we have exhausted our current in-house stock, new device procurements will be limited, while supplies last, to warranty exchanges only," the letter stated.
The letter also stated that BlackBerry will continue to support the Senate's BlackBerry devices "for the foreseeable future." The problem BlackBerry had was the line stating that it told AT&T and Verizon that it has discontinued the Classic, Passport, Z10, Z30 and Q10.
After a great run, "we have informed our US carriers that the manufacturing cycle of only our BlackBerry Classic will cease," BlackBerry retorted in a statement shared with CrackBerry.
BlackBerry is merely changing its device line up, as does most other hardware vendors, so it told its customers to check with their carriers about the availability of the Classic, the company stated.
"We continue to actively support sales of our BlackBerry 10 smartphones to customers in most markets," BlackBerry said. "And for customers choosing our Android device as their next smartphone, there will be a seamless transition without any compromise to the security of their mobile platform or operations."
