BlackBerry suffered a big blow after the company's sales plunged by 40 percent in the recent quarter. Moreover, its total market share accounts to less than 1 percent. Thus, it is now trying to survive in the smartphone industry by luring iPhone users in the U.S. The Canadian company is offering them a trade-in price of up to $550 in exchange for their Apple handsets.
Starting Dec. 1, iPhone users can trade their smartphones for a BlackBerry handset and get the chance to get the latest Passport for free if their iPhone is in best condition. The trade-in value of the handset depends on the iPhone, with the iPhone 4S worth up to $90. iPhone models that can be traded are the 4S, 5, 5C, 5S and iPhone 6. The iPhone 6 is worth as much as $400; unfortunately, the iPhone 6 Plus cannot be traded. The promotional deal includes BlackBerry throwing in an additional $150 on top of the trade-in quote. The deal runs until Feb. 13, 2015 and is available only in North America.
In order to take advantage of the sweet deal from BlackBerry, one must buy the new Passport smartphone from BlackBerry's web site or Amazon and use the trade-in amount to pay for the handset and just pay the remaining balance. The BlackBerry passport costs $499.99.
The BlackBerry Passport was launched in September with a square-like profile, a 4.5 inch screen display with a combination of touchscreen and physical keyboard, quad-core Snapdragon 801 chipset and Adreno 330 GPU paired with 3 GB RAM, 13 MP back camera, 3450 mAh battery, 32 GB internal storage and microSD slot of up to 128 GB.
The BlackBerry Passport got its name because of its shape and size resembling a passport and had a good start selling 200,000 units and sold-out the device both in the web site and Amazon. The Passport smartphone is aimed at "power professionals" as well as users who prefer a physical keyboard over touchscreen. The smartphone focuses on features like email and text that is perfect for business professionals.
