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.
