The hits keep on coming for Blackberry
There's more bad news for BlackBerry, Ltd. ( TSE:BB) this week. Germany's fourth largest mobile carrier, Telefónica Deutschland Holding AG's ( ETR:O2D) O2 brand is dumping BlackBerry as its employee smartphone provider, ending a long relationship with the OEM. Like many who have scorned BlackBerry, Telefonica complained about the high fees BlackBerry charges for its BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), the proprietary backbone of BlackBerry's services. The BlackBerries are getting replaced by Lumia Windows Phones from Nokia Oyj. ( HEX:NOK1V). Sales reps will get a budget model ( the Lumia 520), while store managers and up will receive a sportier model ( the Lumia 925).
Mario Buchner, Executive Assistant to MD Corporate Affairs & Strategy for Telefónica Germany, tells WMPowerUser:
With the new mobile service control we now use our internal strategic cooperation with Microsoft to save time and high costs. For the next year we are saving more than a quarter million euros due to the elimination of BlackBerry. The integration of Windows products in our System landscape is very simple.
The Telefónica PR person says that a top need for employees is to be able to edit and share PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and Word documents on the go. Windows Phone's built in Office suite was a key reason why the carrier picked Windows Phone over Apple, Inc. ( AAPL) iPhones or Google Inc. ( GOOG) Android smartphones. To boot, the PR representatives says that Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) platform is sufficiently secure while lacking the whopping service fees of BES. Mr. Buchner estimates €250,000 ($332,200 USD) in service fees will be saved by dumping BlackBerry. The U.S. Navy and U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) are both eyeing dumping BlackBerry for Android, reportedly. Numerous other U.S. government agencies dumped BlackBerry, mostly for Apple iPhones in 2012.
Droves of clients are dumping BlackBerries. [Image Source: LihPao] Nokia's Lumia line outsold BlackBerry for the first time last quarter. Amidst the sales flop of BlackBerry 10, expectations are once more mounting for a potential sale of the Canadian OEM. For now, though, CEO Thorsten Heins is defying angry shareholders saying all is going as planned, even as BlackBerry sheds value by the week. Mr. Heins, to his credit, has set his expectations low, proclaiming his wish to be "in third place" in the mobile market (behind Google and Apple). Unfortunately, his company under his leadership has failed to even achieve that low bar.Source: WMPowerUser
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