[RumoredNow]

Carriers' number one interest is themselves.

Don't expect them to sell what you want. They expect you to want what they sell. And they depend on you riding the phone upgrade merry-go-round to keep you tied to them.

Imagine if you could only buy your car from the gas station...

[CDM76]

In Canada on Bell if I upgrade my phone I need to subscribe to more expensive plan. Over a two year contract the dollar value is so much that I buy my phones with the savings

Posted via CB10 with my Q10 or Z30 or Passport or maybe Playbook

Ran into same issue. Buying outright and just swapping the SIM much easier and cheaper !!!

Posted via the CrackBerry App on DTek50

[mikedolo]

Buy phone outright and keep it old plan. Telus Rogers bell have ridiculous prices. 1- 2.5 gb of data how do people survive

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[bbdcm70]

in my opinion probably not, but (again in my opinion), the US carriers screwed Blackberry for Apple. Because Apple is American and Americans have more control over people if they have access to their private phones. I think Blackberry is concentrating on the international market, where they are a bigger player and don't have to deal with the "buy American" that goes on

[bh7171]

Carriers' number one interest is themselves.

Don't expect them to sell what you want. They expect you to want what they sell. And they depend on you riding the phone upgrade merry-go-round to keep you tied to them.

Imagine if you could only buy your car from the gas station...

Agree. And when the carrier is being paid a substantial amount of money to lease who do you honestly think they are going to push? HTC? LG? BlackBerry? Hell no- they are pushing the devices on the big kiosks sitting in prime viewing areas period.

The newest member....Cobalt Classic

[DaSchwantz]

@ArtieVandalay Thanks for that description. I do in fact think that some of the cuts may have gone a little too deep to make sure that the veteran global sales reps were retained by BBRY. I'm sure it's very hit and miss right now, depending on your region.

Still, the carriers, particularly in the US, have been nothing but hostile to BBRY. In Canada at least, Apple has been investigated for its carrier deals (not sure what the outcome), but everyone knows that it's similar to grocery stores where the big companies essentially 'control all the shelf space'. Personally I will never go back to a carrier to buy a smartphone, even if it were an Apple or Sammy phone. All you end up getting is a financing plan for a controlled phone (locked or carrier 'unlocked') that is not truly 'yours' (i.e. Automatic lower resale value), that most often has really really horrible update cycles.

BBRY has to take care of its business customers though, and rebuild any broken sales relationships around the world, including with friendly carriers. The focus now needs to be on both software and hardware, but if the relationships are still broken, you can't get either.

Posted via CB10

[ninjakaiden]

I suppose it's working alright for a company like OnePlus, and I'd argue that BlackBerry is a more well-known brand than OnePlus. It COULD work, but I'm still left thinking that the price would have to be even better than it is to really drive hype into the mass market. In any case I really hope they do well enough with the DTEK50 to keep their hardware division.

Posted via CB10

[alan510]

The last phone I bought from a carrier was a Z10. That was at launch. I tend to buy on line now and not from carriers. For me at least, finding a relatively affordable monthly plan is important. I found all those '0' dollar or 'buy one, get one free' promotions you see all the time for especially iPhone and Samsung devices come with hefty monthly charges and term contracts. That's not for me, despite the lure of 'free' phones.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

[bh7171]

The last phone I bought from a carrier was a Z10. That was at launch. I tend to buy on line now and not from carriers. For me at least, finding a relatively affordable monthly plan is important. I found all those '0' dollar or 'buy one, get one free' promotions you see all the time for especially iPhone and Samsung devices come with hefty monthly charges and term contracts. That's not for me, despite the lure of 'free' phones.

Posted via the CrackBerry App for Android

Same here. Last carrier branded phone was my AT&T Z10 in 2013. I would never buy carrier branded again. I went into a AT&T store to check out the PRIV for shines and giggles on my lunch (moved to T-Mobile over a year ago) and saw 12-13 employees chatting amongst themselves. (no customers) As a business owner that's never good. Now that BlackBerry has dual OS's they should buddy with Best Buy to carry Android offerings in their growing unlocked section where Moto is displayed well.

The White Knight-BlackBerry Passport