The US Senate can't get its hands on BlackBerry devices

The US Senate has long been a loyal customer of BlackBerry devices as these were considered to have superior security features compared to competition. A memo passed out to members announces a transition away from BlackBerry, because it has stopped production of those devices. The memo shows that the US Senate administration was unable to procure more BlackBerry 10 devices from carriers AT&T and Verizon. The Senate had been using five models, the Q10, Z10, Z30, Passport and Classic. The current stocks of these devices are exhausted, and the remaining devices are being reserved for service and replacement purposes. Members are being suggested the Samsung Galaxy S6 and the Apple iPhone SE as replacements. BlackBerry will continue to provide warranty and technical support for the devices that are still active. According to a report in Recode, this is exactly the kind of transition that BlackBerry is looking for. BlackBerry is apparently trying to re-invent itself as a services and software company, and is moving away from production of hardware . BlackBerry is in the process of convincing its investors that it can thrive as a company without having to manufacture phones. It showed an increase in first quarter revenue this year. The report notes that this is an end of an era for BlackBerry, which long held US Government contracts. Update: BlackBerry has responded that it never communicated to AT&T or Verizon that it was discontinuing all BlackBerry 10 devices. BlackBerry had told the carriers that only the BlackBerry Classic would be halted from production, as part of a lineup change. The other devices, Q10, Z10, Z30 and the Passport continue to be manufactured. BlackBerry gave a statement  clarifying its production activities to Crackberry. Update: BlackBerry India has issued the following statement: “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.”