There goes the neighborhood. After T-Mobile ran a promotion for BlackBerry users to trade in their old handsets for brand-new iPhones, BlackBerry and its fan club were justifiably upset and used their influence to alter the promotion.
Now it seems that BlackBerry's rabid defense of its handsets actually backfired - big time. Some 94 percent of BlackBerry users flocked to T-Mobile to trade in their old QWERTY handsets - and they didn't leave with new BlackBerrys. No, they left with iPhones and Android-based smartphones instead, proving that T-Mobile was right all along. The true path to a BlackBerry user's heart isn't with the offer of a new BlackBerry - it's with the offer of a brand-new smartphone made by somebody else, anybody else, in fact, just not BlackBerry.
BlackBerry called T-Mobile's promotion "inappropriate" and "ill-conceived," but at the end of the day, T-Mobile really hit the nail on the head. The promotion's inflammatory language sparked just the right kind of BlackBerry rage to gain publicity for T-Mobile and its generous offer. The fact that T-Mobile altered its vision slightly to offer the option of a trade in for a new BlackBerry phone was smart and it certainly appeased BlackBerry.
And still, in spite of T-Mobile's alteration to its brilliant promotion, BlackBerry users didn't decide to stick with BlackBerry. An internal document from T-Mobile leaked online recently, showing that 94 percent of BlackBerry users ran into T-Mobile stores to trade in their BlackBerry handsets in favor of iPhones and Android smartphones. That means that only 6 percent of BlackBerry users stayed faithful to the good old QWERTY keyboard and BlackBerry OS.
Even though T-Mobile offered a bigger discount of $250 towards a new BlackBerry when users of old BlackBerry phones decided to trade in their handsets, it still didn't matter. BlackBerry users turned coat faster than you can say "Benedict Arnold," in favor of iPhones and Android smartphones, in spite of the fact that T-Mobile was only offering $200 for those who wanted to leave BlackBerry.
T-Mobile basically gave BlackBerry users an incentive to stick with BlackBerry and they didn't take it.
"If this is what the customers want, this is what customers will get!" the memo concludes.
Clearly, this does not bode well for BlackBerry.
BlackBerry's hold on the smartphone market is shrinking rapidly. Windows Phone has eclipsed BlackBerry in the great OS race to claim third place behind Android and iOS. If Windows Phone can beat BlackBerry just a few years after Microsoft really decided to invest in its future, imagine how many more BlackBerry customers it will steal now that Microsoft has got the ball rolling with Windows Phone.
If BlackBerry is depending on its business customers and government agencies to save its smartphones from disappearing, it better think twice. The introduction of new secure, NSA-proof smartphones like the Android-based Blackphone and Boeing's Black smartphone will also help eat away at BlackBerry's holdings.
BlackBerry really has to do something and fast, if it wants to stop its smartphones from sinking.
