TORONTO (Reuters)-BlackBerry Ltd Chief Executive John Chen fired a salvo at T-Mobile USA Inc. Tuesday, ill-conceived call a promotion of the company encourages customers using BlackBerry smartphones to upgrade to iPhone.
T-Mobile USA, which is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, sent emails to some of its customers last week, pitching free iPhone 5s and touting the promotion as, "great offer for BlackBerry customers."
That sparked a brouhaha in forum social media after some of the BlackBerry faithful customers of telecommunications company has reacted angrily to the offer, which they perceived as a slight.
The backlash prompted US T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere respond publicly. In a Twitter posting on Sunday, Legere said T-Mobile would continue to support BlackBerry smartphones and assured BlackBerry users who do not have to give up their devices or "fidelity".
In a blog post on Tuesday, CEO of BlackBerry Chen slammed the T-Mobile offer us as, "clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion", and thanked BlackBerry users for their loyalty to the company.
"The partnership with our brand is appreciated by all of us at BlackBerry and draw a sharp contrast with the behavior of our business partner of long standing," Chen said in the posting, noting that T-Mobile has not discussed his promotion with BlackBerry.
T-Mobile USA said later that is happy to work with BlackBerry and will be from Friday, offer fast and free transport for BlackBerry devices for T-Mobile customers who order.
BlackBerry, a pioneer in the field once, smartphone, is struggling to claw back market share lost to Apple Inc. 's iPhone, Galaxy devices of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other smartphones with Android operating system from Google Inc. \r
New company line based on Waterloo, Ontario of 10 BlackBerry devices so far failed to regain market share, and Chen is trying to reshape the company and focus less on the laptop and more on business services.
Chen pointed out, however, that the handset business remains a critical component for BlackBerry as the company attempts a turnaround the engineer.
Chen called T-Mobile US to "find a way forward that allows us to serve our shared customers once again."
(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Edited by Peter Galloway and Andre Grenon)
& ElectronicsHandheld & DevicesT technology-MobileBlackBerry connected
T-Mobile USA, which is majority owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, sent emails to some of its customers last week, pitching free iPhone 5s and touting the promotion as, "great offer for BlackBerry customers."
That sparked a brouhaha in forum social media after some of the BlackBerry faithful customers of telecommunications company has reacted angrily to the offer, which they perceived as a slight.
The backlash prompted US T-Mobile Chief Executive John Legere respond publicly. In a Twitter posting on Sunday, Legere said T-Mobile would continue to support BlackBerry smartphones and assured BlackBerry users who do not have to give up their devices or "fidelity".
In a blog post on Tuesday, CEO of BlackBerry Chen slammed the T-Mobile offer us as, "clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion", and thanked BlackBerry users for their loyalty to the company.
"The partnership with our brand is appreciated by all of us at BlackBerry and draw a sharp contrast with the behavior of our business partner of long standing," Chen said in the posting, noting that T-Mobile has not discussed his promotion with BlackBerry.
T-Mobile USA said later that is happy to work with BlackBerry and will be from Friday, offer fast and free transport for BlackBerry devices for T-Mobile customers who order.
BlackBerry, a pioneer in the field once, smartphone, is struggling to claw back market share lost to Apple Inc. 's iPhone, Galaxy devices of Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and other smartphones with Android operating system from Google Inc. \r
New company line based on Waterloo, Ontario of 10 BlackBerry devices so far failed to regain market share, and Chen is trying to reshape the company and focus less on the laptop and more on business services.
Chen pointed out, however, that the handset business remains a critical component for BlackBerry as the company attempts a turnaround the engineer.
Chen called T-Mobile US to "find a way forward that allows us to serve our shared customers once again."
(Reporting by Euan Rocha; Edited by Peter Galloway and Andre Grenon)
& ElectronicsHandheld & DevicesT technology-MobileBlackBerry connected
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