T-Mobile And BlackBerry Make Up, Announce Availability Of BlackBerry Classic

Just one short year ago, it had seemed that BlackBerry and T-Mobile were done dealing with each other. BlackBerry had decided to pull all of its devices from T-Mobile shelves shortly after the UN-carrier announced an incentive program for customers to switch away from their BlackBerry devices. T-Mobile took the news in stride, and of course continued to push forward without the former smart phone giant.

Now, both companies are highlighting the benefits of this “new partnership” in hopes to ignite sales for BlackBerry once again. It strikes me a bit odd that the companies would be announcing the BlackBerry Classic though, as the BlackBerry Passport was the consistently better reviewed unit of the two. Either way, the BlackBerry Classic will be available from T-Mobile starting May 13th online, and in participating T-Mobile stores as of May 15th. Check out the press release below for full details.

BlackBerry, T-Mobile Team Up to Bring BlackBerry Classic to Un-carrier Customers
Two mobile industry mavericks create new partnership to bring the business-savvy BlackBerry Classic to the Un-carrier’s Data Strong™ network

Waterloo, Ontario and Bellevue, Washington — May 07, 2015 —BlackBerry Limited (NASDAQ: BBRY; TSX: BB), a global leader in mobile communications, and T-Mobile US, Inc. (NYSE: TMUS), America’s fastest growing wireless company, today showed they’re two companies in the business of listening to their customers by announcing a new partnership to bring the BlackBerry Classic to the Un-carrier’s Data Strong network and its approximately 57 million individual and business customers.

This new partnership begins by bringing together the productivity and security of the BlackBerry Classic and T-Mobile’s industry-rattling Un-carrier for Business initiative. Now, whether you’re downloading tomorrow’s big presentation or video conferencing with colleagues on Skype, only the Un-carrier™ serves up the BlackBerry Classic onAmerica’s fastest nationwide 4G LTE network—giving US business customers and today’s data-hungry mobile professionals the wireless experience they’ve been asking for.

“People who love BlackBerry smartphones and want to use one on America’s fastest nationwide 4G LTE network now have that choice,” said John Legere, president and CEO of T-Mobile. “Bringing BlackBerry into our device line-up now also stokes Un-carrier 9.0, which is all about bringing the Un-carrier revolution to business.”

“BlackBerry is proud to partner with T-Mobile once again to offer the world’s most secure and reliable mobile products and services that encourage productivity − whether they are individual users making the most of their day with the BlackBerry Classic, or an enterprise seeking to manage thousands of devices,” said John Chen, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO. “Together with T-Mobile, we hope to deliver highly differentiated solutions that appeal to our mutual users: the power professionals who depend on their smartphones to get things done and make things happen.”

The BlackBerry Classic is built to meet the needs of productive people who appreciate the speed and accuracy that can be found with a physical QWERTY keyboard and features such as a fast browser and up to 22 hours of battery power.

The BlackBerry Classic will be available beginning May 13 at T-Mobile.com and in participating U.S. T-Mobile stores beginning May 15 for $0 down (and $18.33/month for 24 months; FRP: $439.92). For more information, visit BlackBerry.com/Classic orT-Mobile.com.

 

Anybody with T-Mobile plan on getting one?