BlackBerry and T-Mobile have officially broken up

Relations have been tense since T-Mobile offered free iPhone 5s to BlackBerry customers

Relations between BlackBerry and T-Mobile have been strained for a while now, ever since T-Mobile dropped BlackBerry from its stores and then began offering a promotion for users to trade their BlackBerrys in for an iPhone.

I'd imagine that neither move made BlackBerry very happy. Now, finally, they have a chance to do something about it. Namely, to kick T-Mobile to the curb.

BlackBerry announced on Wednesday that it would not be renewing T-Mobile's license to sell BlackBerry products when it expires on April 25th.

“BlackBerry has had a positive relationship with T-Mobile for many years. Regretfully, at this time, our strategies are not complementary and we must act in the best interest of our BlackBerry customers.  We hope to work with T-Mobile again in the future when our business strategies are aligned,” BlackBerry CEO and Executive Chair, John Chen, said in a statement.

“We are deeply grateful to our loyal BlackBerry customers and will do everything in our power to provide continued support with your existing carrier or ensure a smooth transition to our other carrier partners."

If you're a BlackBerry customer on the T-Mobile network, you are probably not feeling too happy right now, but BlackBerry says that it will still work with T-Mobile to make sure that any existing customers, or anyone who buys a BlackBerry from T-Mobile's inventory will still be provided with "the best possible customer service."

BlackBerry did not elaborate further about why it made this decision, but a blog post from Chen in February, following T-Mobile's "swap your phone" idea, should shed some light.

Chen called the move an "anti-BlackBerry campaign," and said that he was "outraged" at what T-Mobile had done. 

"What puzzles me more is that T-Mobile did not speak with us before or after they launched this clearly inappropriate and ill-conceived marketing promotion," he wrote.

Most hurtful, of all, though, must have been how successful the T-Mobile promotion was. Even after T-Mobile, wanting to make some kind of amends, modified the promotion to give BlackBerry users $50 back if they upgraded to another BlackBerry device, a full 94% of those customers switched to other manufacturers. 

No wonder BlackBerry has finally had enough.

VatorNews has reached out to T-Mobile for a comment on BlackBerry's decision. We will update if and when we learn more. 

(Image source: blogs.psychcentral.com)