By the looks of it, BlackBerry chief John Chen wasn’t appeased by T-Mobile’s attempt to make peace – in fact, things have only escalated: T-Mobile will no longer carry any BlackBerry device. In a press release today, the company formerly known as RIM announced that it has chosen not to renew T-Mobile’s license to sell its products when it expires on April 25th, 2014.
This doesn’t exactly look like smart business for a company in trouble, but alas, I am no CEO. Who knows – maybe it’s the brilliant move that will save BlackBerry.
More likely – it is not.
I would have gone the opposite direction and worked hard with T-Mobile to try and bring about a positive ad/marketing campaign to try and get BB back on the field, perhaps not aim to high, think more grass roots, get people trying out their phones etc..
Everyone reading this and everyone commenting has said the same thing, it’s a desperate attempt by BB to seem relevant, at the end of the day companies don’t have hurt feelings, the BB CEO should not be bringing in emotions but thinking, how can i sell more BB’s, how can i improve the brand of BB, how can i get people on the BB side.
It’s a shame as all of the reports ive heard from people using the BB phones say they are excellent devices, i personally like using my iPhone but i am sad that the mobile phone arena seems to be able to support two big players, it would be so much better if it was a three or four legged race at least. (Windows phone is catching up so there’s hope for a three legged race at least).
T-Mobile fired the first shot by initiating a competitive trade-up promotion campaign themed around your “Old BlackBerry for a New Whatever-else than a BlackBerry”.
It appears that T-Mobile did not consult BlackBerry prior to launching this campaign.
Whether they approached BlackBerry or not, the theme of the campaign conveyed the message that T-Mobile had lost faith in the long term survival of BlackBerry and desired to recycle as e-waste anything with the BB logo as fast as possible.
This is not really the message a major carrier should have sent its customers. The T-Mobile executives may believe that the probability of long-term survival of BlackBerry is closer to zero than some small but real value. If so, simple device attrition at contract renewal time would have taken care of reducing their inventory of devices with a BB logo on them. They did not need to launch such a promotion.
Look back at the Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD battle – once Best-Buy, Target, Walmart announced within days of each other they would no longer carry HD-DVD players and media, these announcements became the proverbial stake through the heart and the HD-DVD promoters (Toshiba and others?) conceided defeat.
Given such past device history, BlackBerry’s response was lakely as much a warning shot to the other carriers thinking of launching similar promotions as a punitive action against T-Mobile.
I can only guess – not having been a fly on the wall during the various meetings leading to these actions.
Did T-Mobile’s promotion include upgrading to another BlackBerry? If so then I don’t see the problem, otherwise good points.
My knowledge is second hand but I think it did. I had a couple of old BlackBerry phones in a drawer, and I gave them to a friend who then used them to upgrade himself to a Galaxy Note 3 and his mother to a BlackBerry Q10. I ended up with his Galaxy Note 2 out of the deal, so everyone came away happy. But as far as I know, the promotion did include upgrading to a BB10 device.
Sort of. They offered exactly two phones during the promotion: a refurbished Q10, or a much older pre-BB10 handset. No Z10. No Z30. As a matter of fact, no new BB10 devices were offered during the promotion at all.
Slickdeals.net and other sites picked up on the promotion quickly. People were able to purchase *any* used, working Blackberry device off eBay for a few bucks, and use it as credit towards a new smartphone. None of these people were BlackBerry users, nor did they have any intention of ever getting a BB10 device.
Understandably, 94% of customers who participated in the “promotion” ended up getting a non-BB device. T-Mobile CEO Legere ended up tweeting this fact as proof that BlackBerry does not sell.
I don’t see how Blackberry is in any possession to spurn anyone who is promoting their products in any way, no matter how halfheartedly.
T-mobile could come right out and say, “We think Blackberry smartphones suck and are obsolescent, but we’ll still sell you one if you want it for whatever reason (legacy, security, etc.)”… and I think Blackberry ought to just grin and bear it.
BlackBerry has a chance to profit off Apple users by settling with a 3rd party keyboard clone. Ryan Seacrest is the spokesperson for them and the sale of it bolsters, not damages BlackBerry.
BlackBerry as a future for profit entity just is pure failure. They continue to dwell in the past.
Blackberry is seemingly slowly turning into “US Government” and “US intelligence agencies” phones only.
Blackberry arnt the ones circling the sink-hole here. T-Mobile are. They are a comparative minnow in the US market, struggling to get business contracts.
Business contracts are what make telcos money, not consumers.
If a company has stuck with blackberry this long, then they would almost certainly be more likely to switch telco rather than phone(s).
Also, dont forget T-Mobile will be merging with Sprint any day now. Whatever comes from the ashes (my guess is a new biz like EE in the UK) will have all the Blackberry contracts in place from the Sprint side of things. Blackberry send a strong message for little risk. Great CEO decision.
lmao
Agreed. Likely ironic that T-Mobile USA will not be around in five years, while BlackBerry will still be around providing phones to legacy customers and QNX to Apple and car manufacturers.
Edited 2014-04-02 21:29 UTC
I tossed my blackberry curve to the curb about 4 years ago, this is a bad move on RIM’s part…they should be doing everything they can to stay relevant.
Edited 2014-04-02 16:37 UTC
I see it as a powerplay to increase exclusivity and see if there’s any demand growth at all from the other licenced carriers.
That’s the only non-retarded play I see here. Otherwise I agree with everyone else; not a smart move.
…..a few people lamented, the rest rejoiced. Our BES server disco’d, support was dropped. BB had a good product, probably the best calendaring system. It’s MDM with iphones and android BYOD now.