As you might already know, the US Senate has announced that staffers will no longer be issued BlackBerry devices for their official work. This information was first reported by Bomble, and is based on an internal email accessed by the publication.
Curiously, the email – in the very beginning – says, “BlackBerry informed Verizon and AT&T that production of all BlackBerry OS 10 devices (Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport, and Classic) has been discontinued. Future carrier order fulfillment will not be guaranteed due to limited remaining stock.”
However, when reached out for a comment, the Canadian company flatly denied this, terming the statement on discontinuation of BB OS 10 devices as “incorrect.” Here’s the complete response from the company:
The statement about discontinuation of BlackBerry 10 at AT&T and Verizon is incorrect.
BlackBerry’s device strategy is based on a cross-platform model where we’ll continue to support our BlackBerry 10 platform while expanding our device offering to include Android-based devices. We are focused on software updates for BlackBerry 10, with version 10.3.3 scheduled for next month, and a second update to follow next year.
Similar to many other device makers, we are changing the lineup of smartphones as we innovate and advance our portfolio. And, we are updating our smartphone lineup with state of the art devices. As part of this, and after many successful years in the market, we have informed our US carriers that the manufacturing cycle of only our BlackBerry Classic will cease. However, we have informed our customers to check with their respective carrier for device availability or purchase Classic unlocked online. We continue to actively support sales of our BlackBerry 10 smartphones to customers in most markets. 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.
We believe that being truly cross platform – which includes support for BB10, Android, iOS and Windows Phone – will allow us to best serve our customers across the world.
So, as it stands now, the Classic is being discontinued, while other BB OS 10 phones will still around.
The Information War 