Ch. 15- Retailing

BlackBerry store in Michigan

In December 2007 BlackBerry opened their first retail store in Farmington Hill, Michigan. The store offers BlackBerry device models and accessories from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint the major U.S. carriers which offer smart phones. The BlackBerry Store will offer BlackBerry training services for both BlackBerry users and BlackBerry enterprise server (BES) administrators.

BlackBerry store in Hartsfield-Jackson Airport

Since then instead of doing the usual stores on the streets BlackBerry has done something very unique; putting stores in the busiest place in the world, airports. On April 21, 2009 BlackBerry open its doors inside the Hartsfield- Jackson Airport in Atlanta, Georgia and there on out they have opened up six (6) other stores in Boston Logan International Airport, Houston George Bush International Airport, Charlotte Douglas International Airport, Minneapolis St. Paul International Airport, Newark Liberty International Airport and Philadelphia International Airport. These are full service location where travelers can establish new service, upgrade existing plans and shop for the latest and greatest BlackBerry devices and accessories. Opening a full service store has helped boost sales because of the unique services they all offer.

BlackBerry store in China

Don’t think that BlackBerry forgot about the international market. In July 2010 BlackBerry opened their first international store in where else China. This move hopes to bring BlackBerry back into the mainstream there since the devices have been mostly been sold through third-party distributors for the last few years. The BlackBerry store should bring a better consumer experience and help sales increase. The only devices currently available are the newly released Curve 8910 as well as the Curve 8310 which will both operate on the China Mobile network, but there is no mention if more devices will follow. There are also plans to open more retail stores in China sometime in the future.