Blackberry shares drop after Home Depot ditch phone

BlackBerry shares have fallen 4.6 percent in New York trading after Home Depot have said that they will stop issuing their phones to corporate employees and managers.

The home improvement chain are going to swap out 10,000 Blackberry models with new Apple iPhones, according to Stephen Holmes, a spokesman for Home Depot. This change isn't going to affect 60,000 mobile devices which are used by store employees.

Home Depot are the fifth largest retailer in the world, earning $947 million in profit on $18.13 billion in revenue in their most recently reported quarter.

In October last year, The U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement Agency said they were also ditching BlackBerry in a move which would see them purchasing $2.1 million iPhones for more than 17,600 employees.

The move is another kick to BlackBerry who have just released new smartphones in a last ditch attempt to rescue their flagging sales, now in single digit market share figures.

Shares dropped to $15.73 at the close in New York yesterday. The stock had previously climbed 39 percent this year with optimism surrounding the BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Kitguru says: Sales of new smartphones will be critical for BlackBerry.

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