BlackBerry has announced that T-Mobile US will stop selling its devices.

In a statement late Tuesday, the Canadian smartphone maker said it will not renew its license agreement with T-Mobile, which is due to expire on 25 April, because the companies' strategies are not complementary.

"We must act in the best interest of our BlackBerry customers," said CEO John Chen.

"We hope to work with T-Mobile again in the future when our business strategies are aligned," he said.

For one analyst, Tuesday's announcement is another sign of BlackBerry's irreversible decline.

In an email to Total Telecom, Radio Free Mobile founder Richard Windsor said the likelihood is that T-Mobile no longer sees the value in paying BlackBerry to license its services and range its handsets.

"This event reinforces my concern that BlackBerry has lost much of the value that it provides to the user," he said. "Consequently market share and users are likely to continue declining."

Windsor reiterated his forecast that BlackBerry's market share worldwide will reach zero "sometime in 2015".


BlackBerry's relationship with T-Mobile US soured in February after the operator launched an email marketing campaign that suggested its BlackBerry customers 'upgrade' to an iPhone. The move backfired when some of BlackBerry's loyal customers took to social media to defend their choice of handset. Chen also took exception, launching a tirade against T-Mobile's conduct.

T-Mobile subsequently sought to appease its BlackBerry customers by offering a $250 discount to users trading in their old BlackBerry for a new one.

BlackBerry said Tuesday it is working with other carrier partners to provide customers on T-Mobile's network assistance with switching to another provider.

BlackBerry's announcement came shortly after the publication of yet more dismal quarterly results.

In the fourth quarter, BlackBerry swung to a $423 million loss on revenues of less than $1 billion. The majority of the 3.4 million devices it shipped were channel inventory, and the bulk of those were from its older BlackBerry 7 range, rather than its new BB10 range.

Nonetheless, Chen was upbeat about the company's turnaround progress, insisting his company is back on the path to profitability.