It goes without saying that BlackBerry has seen much better days. No longer the tech heavyweight it once was, the company has not been able to catch up with Android and iOS-powered devices, and even its Android-powered BlackBerry Priv hasn’t been any great shakes in the market since its release. Now, it appears as if the Canadian company’s long-standing status as the U.S. Senate’s device maker of choice is about to come to an end.
Recent literature sent out to Senate staffers suggests that new BlackBerry phones will only be available while supply lasts, and that supply is dwindling quickly.
This came after BlackBerry informed American carriers AT&T and Verizon Wireless that it will no longer be making devices running on the BlackBerry OS 10 mobile platform, and effectively means that Senate staffers won’t be able to get a BlackBerry once the current supply is depleted. Still, support for existing BlackBerry devices will "continue for the foreseeable future," according to the Senate's letter.
In the meantime, staffers are still allowed to order the following BlackBerry devices: the Classic, the Passport, the Z30, the Z10, and the Q10. The current inventory (as of June 29, 2016) is mostly made up of Classic and Z30 phones, and there are only about 600 units remaining as of that date.
Once the inventory is gone, the only new BlackBerries issued out will be done so as part of warranty exchanges, though that’s not even a guarantee.
Senate offers iPhone SE or Samsung Galaxy S6 as alternatives
Those who no longer wish to keep their BlackBerry devices can choose one of two devices being offered by the Senate. Qualified staffers can get a 16GB iPhone SE if they are eligible for an upgrade, while any staffer can upgrade to a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S6, regardless of eligibility status.
That’s one midrange phone from Apple and a flagship device from Samsung that was released last year, but then again, recent BlackBerry devices have mainly sported midrange specs, so it’s a fair tradeoff in terms of basic tech details.
