Blackberry is in sharp decline, that much we know. Having been on a downward spiral for years, the company was outraged at a recent T-Mobile promotion offering current Blackberry owners incentive to upgrade to an iPhone. T-Mobile tweaked the promo to be more Blackberry friendly, but it didn’t help the Waterloo OEM. Reports suggest around 94% of blackberry owners jumped ship.
If you’re not familiar with the brouhaha, we’l recap it quickly. T-Mobile offered Blackberry users a promotional deal on an iPhone upgrade, to which Blackberry enthusiasts (both of them) took exception, along with the CEO of Blackberry. T-Mobile backed off the iPhone angle a bit, instead offering Blackberry users a chance to upgrade to anything they liked — Blackberry devices included. T-Mobile Blackberry customers would get a $200 incentive to upgrade, and an additionall $50 should they get a Z10 or Q10.
Sounds pretty great, right? Upgrade to a brand new Blackberry device and get $250 in credit! Wrong. A resounding 94% of Blackberry users on T-Mobile took the chance to get something else entirely. While we don’t know how many Blackberry devices were traded in, T-Mobile notes a 15-fold increase in Blackberry trade-ins.
While the initial “iPhone-only” thing may have been a slap in the face from a carrier, 94% of users taking advantage of the offer to get away from Blackberry should tell the company something. This also comes after T-Mobile has decided to transition away from carrying Blackberry devices in-store, so it seems Blackberry is losing on all fronts. At least they have BBM.
re: users jumped ship
I wonder how many tmobile users jumped ship to att and Verizon for their blackberry support, they’re the real winners here.
Its unfortunate if the 94% report is accurate. I am a Blackberry user and absolutely l