OTTAWA: Canadian smartphone maker BlackBerry was handed a crushing setback for its glitzy new handsets when its major customer Home Depot confirmed yesterday it was switching to Apple’s iPhones.
Home Depot spokesman Stephen Holmes said almost 10,000 BlackBerry handsets used by its company executives and store managers would be dumped in favour of the iPhone 5.
While BlackBerry helped create a culture of mobile users glued to the smartphones nearly a decade ago, many of those customers have since moved to Apple or Android-based phones. Having fallen far behind Apple and lost ground to other smartphone makers such as Samsung, BlackBerry last month launched the Q10 and the Z10 in a bid to revive its fortunes and regain market share.AFP
