OTTAWA, Ontario -- Struggling Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry said it will not renew an accord allowing wireless carrier T-Mobile to sell its smartphones in the United States.
When the current license expires April 25, T-Mobile, a unit of Deutsche Telekom and the fourth-largest wireless carrier in the United States, will no longer offer BlackBerry phones on its U.S. network.
The two companies' strategies are no longer complementary, although BlackBerry hopes to work again with T-Mobile once their commercial strategies are back in sync, CEO John Chen said.
The end of the contract will have no effect on current users of BlackBerrys on the T-Mobile network.
BlackBerry said it would continue to provide support to existing T-Mobile BlackBerry users and to anyone who may buy a BlackBerry smartphone from T-Mobile's remaining inventory.
In December, BlackBerry unveiled a manufacturing partnership with Taiwan-based Foxconn and a revamped organizational structure. The deal transfers to Foxconn (IW 1000/809) the manufacturer and inventory management and allows BlackBerry to focus on software and services.
But BlackBerry has continued to lose money, posting last week fresh losses of $5.9 billion (4.3 billion euros) for the period ended March 2.
Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2014
