T-Mobile recently “outraged” BlackBerry’s CEO John Chen when the wireless provider emailed its BlackBerry customers, encouraging them to upgrade to an iPhone 5S with no money down. After an angry blog post by Chen, T-Mobile apologized for the email and offered BlackBerry owners a big-time trade-in credit if they wanted to upgrade their phones – $250 toward a new BlackBerry or $200 toward any other new phone. This move did lead to lots of upgrades – but didn’t lead to very many new BlackBerrys. The recently-ended promotion saw 15 times more BlackBerry trade-ins than usual, but 94 percent of those upgrades saw customers leave BlackBerry for another platform. Even with an extra $50 on the table to upgrade to a Q10 or Z10, nearly 19 out of every 20 upgrading BlackBerry owners decided to jump ship. Is this, once again, the beginning of the end for BlackBerry? Not quite. T-Mobile’s BlackBerry options are pretty slim, and Chen said his company would focus on AT&T and Verizon, where his company’s phones do much better.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with technology, media and marketing. Named LinkedIn’s “Top Voice in Technology,” he covers tech and business for Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN and writes a popular daily business blog. He's a bestselling author, and the creator of the popular, free online course, Generative AI for Execs. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.