Samsung offers trade-in incentives on BlackBerry phones

Just after BBM was announced for Android and iPhone, Samsung Africa managed to secure a window of exclusivity for its customers, giving them a little more than a messaging platform, writes LIRON SEGEV.

Samsung pulled a ‚”wait there is more‚” move, which sent Twitter into a frenzy.

A Tweet from the official Samsung Africa account states that it has started to offer a trade-in program to bring in your old BlackBerry and trade it for a new Samsung device:

Another Tweet quickly followed to clarify that it is not a one-for-one swap but rather a discount that will be given based on the condition of the BlackBerry device:

Trade-in programs are not a new phenomenon in the mobile world.

There are examples of manufacturers who accept their old phones for trade-in for new devices. This list includes the likes of Apple that introduced their trade-in program for customers who bring in their ‚”old‚” iPhones and are able to receive credit towards new devices. Samsung has announced their ADH Premium program, where amongst other value added services, Samsung will guarantee the future value of their devices so customers can use them to trade-up for future Samsung products.

We have also seen mobile retail stores such as the United Kingdom based Carphone Warehouse that offers a trade-in program where they accept any brand of phone for credit towards a new device.

Even cell phone network operators offer buy-back programs like Vodacom’s buyback program, which lets you trade in the following devices: iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, Nokia N8, Samsung Galaxy S2, Samsung Galaxy S3, BlackBerry 8520, BlackBerry 9780, BlackBerry 9800 and the Blackberry 9700.

So what’s new ?

Samsung is the first phone manufacturer (as far as I can tell) to offer a trade-in program that is willing to accept another manufacturer’s device. In what can be interpreted as a very aggressive move, this incentive is a motivator for Africa’s remaining BlackBerry fans to move across to Samsung devices.

At the time of posting, Samsung South Africa declined to comment on what it calls ‚”market speculation‚” even though the Samsung official account was the first to post this offer.

* Follow Liron Segev, aka The Techie Guy, on his blog at thetechieguy.com, or on Twitter at @Liron_Segev