T-Mobile Promotion Shows That BlackBerry Users Aren't Very Loyal

On the final day of a controversial trade-in promotion, one thing has become clear — T-Mobile BlackBerry users aren’t all that loyal. A full 94 percent of BlackBerry users who opted to upgrade their smartphones in the past month at the No. 4 U.S. carrier went with another platform, according to a field sales memo obtained by Tmonews. Last month, T-Mobile announced a “great offer for BlackBerry customers,” an iPhone 5s for $0 down. The promotion noted that Apple’s handset had the right tools “to do more.” That didn’t sit well with BlackBerry CEO John Chen, who called the move “inappropriate.” Soon after, T-Mobile revised its promotion. BlackBerry users would receive $250 to upgrade to a new BlackBerry Q10 or Z10. These same users were offered $200 on any of T-Mobile’s “other state-of-the-art smartphones.” This promotion has proven to be “very successful,” leading to 15 times the normal amount of BlackBerry devices being traded in. Unfortunately, "Almost all of the customers trading in decided against sticking with their chosen brand, and went with something entirely different.” This news really doesn't come as a surprise, given that Apple and Samsung heavily dominate the smartphone industry. Nonetheless, this is still bad news for BlackBerry and for its new CEO. T-Mobile’s BlackBerry trade-in promotion ends today, March 5. See also: BlackBerry Files Motion To Stop Sales Of The Typo Keyboard In The United States, BBM Version 2.0 Arrives With Voice Calling, Channels And Location Sharing, and Sprint Is Having Second Thoughts About A Potential T-Mobile Acquisition.

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