Home Depot pulls out of newly-named RIM, gets in bed with Apple
10,000 devices, another big drop in a growing ocean
Home Depot is the latest US company to drop BlackBerry, handing out 10,000 iPhones to executives and other management staff and wiping out 3 per cent of BlackBerry's share price in the process.
News of the decision left BlackBerry shares down, but it remains unclear if Home Depot made its decision before or after the launch of the Z10. That's critical because BlackBerry - formerly known as RIM - is pinning everything on the new handset - and if that's not enough to restore faith in the brand then nothing will be. Talking to Reuters, Home Depot confirmed that it was replacing the BlackBerrys, but wouldn't say when the critical decision had been made, or even when the replacement programme had begun.
If Home Depot had been waiting to see the new hardware, and had decided to switch following the 30 January launch then that would be damning indeed, but if it was already in the process then it's less worrying, though still bad news for BlackBerry.
Ten thousand devices sounds like a lot, but it's a drop in the ocean... but it follows a lot of other drops into what's becoming an unstoppable flood. BlackBerry hasn't much time left to get some market share. It is still the third mobile ecosystem by a good margin but needs to get some wins of a similar size to Home Depot if it's going to turn around the decline. ®
COMMENTS
What Home Depot does to Blackberry can also be done to them
Th US building supply monolith Home Depot is American and just as much as Americans are pro-everything American (even if made in China) so too are Canadians.
So screw you Home Depot, you can close a few more Canadian outlets, we have some well-priced Canadian alternatives.
You kinda know when iPhones aren't cool any more when businesses start using them.
Poor BB
The slow agonizing death is underway. 3 platforms is enough. Crapple, Spamdroid & Winblows....
How Ironic
Don't know about you but I'm not so delighted at having a phone that the chav's down at HD own. Makes my iPhone feel cheap and dirty.
twisting around everywhere.
Home Depot was early to embrace linux, and touch screens, I thought it was brilliant at the time, but it was untested, so far that has been brilliant, then they added automatic checkout lanes (without people) , I don't care much for it. Add to it, the fact they don't carry any real solar stuff (beyond the plethora of beautiful garden toys) I've been going to Lowes more often. just sayin HD... no cheap shots here, when you need MC4 you need MC4. Further as was pointed out it probably in HD's 10 year forward plan to stay up with the best phones, and they may have already had the process to migrate in play before the new Blackberry.
Blackberry who has been getting hammered by RIMM network lawsuites, and meanwhile their CEO's failure to leverage the holy Sam Hell out of QNX. just sayin. Now that the horse appears to be leaving the gate, there doesn't seem to be much of a track left for them, until things get smoothed out (the iphones are worn out and people need a new device/plan) again. Hell I was looking at Samsung.. what can I say. But QNX on the blackberry, that I could be VERY VERY interested in. Let's have our apps, and lets have it run by the RTOS who can save battery more efficiently
