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After CEO outrage spawns BlackBerry-friendly T-Mobile promo, 94% ditched BlackBerry anyway

Updated Dec 19th, 2018 8:46PM EST
BGR

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BlackBerry users were outraged when they learned that T-Mobile had launched a promotion enticing them to trade in their old BlackBerry smartphones in exchange for a shiny new iPhone, and they weren’t shy in going after T-Mobile boss John Legere to let him know it. New BlackBerry CEO John Chen took the opportunity to pile on and rally his troops, noting that he too was outraged by the “ill-conceived marketing promotion.”

All this rage prompted Legere & Co. to concoct a new BlackBerry-friendly promotion, allowing current BlackBerry users to trade in their handsets for $250 toward a new BlackBerry, or $200 toward any other new smartphone of their choosing.

Sadly, the promo backfired big time for BlackBerry, as a new report has revealed.

T-Mobile’s marketing boss had already gone on record in stating that BlackBerry trade-in volume increased by 15 times as a result of the promo, but he offered no details on which devices BlackBerry users were upgrading to. Well, TmoNews has gotten its hands on what it claims to be an internal T-Mobile document detailing the results of the carrier’s BlackBerry trade-in offer, and it doesn’t look good at all for the struggling smartphone vendor.

According to the document, a staggering 94% of T-Mobile subscribers who took advantage of the promotion and traded in their old BlackBerry for a new phone switched to a platform other than BlackBerry.

In other words, BlackBerry CEO John Chen’s outrage just bought Google and Apple a whole bunch of new customers.

For those still looking to trade in their old T-Mobile BlackBerry for a new BlackBerry smartphone or any other new handset, Wednesday is the last day of T-Mobile’s promotion.

The leaked internal document can be seen below.

Zach Epstein Executive Editor

Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.

His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.