BlackBerry Will Buy Your iPhone For $550

mpicpp points out that BlackBerry is hoping to get iPhone owners to switch to Passport smartphones by promising up to $550 to trade in their phones. "The promotion, which starts Monday, promises as much as $550 to iPhone owners who trade in their handsets in favor of BlackBerry's Passport. The actual trade-in value depends on the iPhone, with the iPhone 4S worth up to $90 and the iPhone 6 worth up to $400. (The iPhone 6 Plus is not eligible.) BlackBerry then sweetens the deal by kicking in an additional $150 as a topper for each iPhone. The deal will run through February 13, but it's good only in North America. Customers must buy the $599 to $699 unlocked Passport phone through either BlackBerry's website or Amazon. The trade-in amount comes in the form of a Visa prepaid card."

Comments

Re:Bah hah hah

[ArhcAngel]

It's amazing how a little information and a huge lack of understanding leads people to comment as if they are an authority on a matter they obviously do not understand. Let's focus on a key piece of information that virtually nobody understands when it comes to this story from India...This is about the wireless network not the phones! BlackBerry's BIS was/is a global network BlackBerry deployed to support its phones. Think of BIS as AT&T, Verizon, or Sprint for BlackBerry data. The wireless carriers in each country pay BlackBerry to jack into the BIS so they can support BlackBerry (BB OS 7 and earlier) phones on their network. Now all the carriers in India were already providing a direct link to the Indian government but because of BlackBerry's security focus they refused to provide access. They negotiated with the Indian government for over two years until the Indian government gave them an ultimatum. Give us access or lose all access to India. So to recap...the only reason you heard about it in the news is because BlackBerry fought to keep its network secure from the government whereas ALL other carriers happily complied without incident. This means no matter what device you use in India (or Saudi Arabia, or Russia, or any place else where the government insists on access) you are being monitored. However, if you happen to be connected to a BES the government does NOT have the keys and has no more access than they did prior to BlackBerry providing the keys to its BIS network.