BlackBerry India Introduces Z10 Exchange Offer Scheme to Boost Sales: Who's Next?

BlackBerry has been struggling revenues for quite some time now. The Canadian tech firm had pinned their hopes on the new BlackBerry10 based handsets including Z10, Q10 and even the low-end model Q5, but that hasn't paved of as well as they hoped it would.

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However, company has not given up, in an attempt boost sales for the new Z10, it is throwing in nice little exchange offer that might just do the trick. According to the offer users can exchange their old phones for the new Z10, with discounts going up to Rs. 11,000.

"Customers across 17 cities will get discount of up to Rs. 11,000 if they buy BlackBerry Z10 under this scheme. We have given reference rates to dealers for existing BlackBerry users willing to shift to BlackBerry Z10," BlackBerry India's Director for Channel Sales, Prosenjit Sen told PTI.

As per the scheme, users of BlackBerry Bold 9900 can get discount up to Rs. 11,000, while users of lower-end models such as the BlackBerry Curve 8530 can get a discount of Rs. 3,000.

Let's have a look at the smartphone's specifications in case you would like to purchase it now. BlackBerry Z10 comes with a 4.2 inch capacitive touchscreen display with 1280 x 768 pixel resolution, 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4470 dual-core processor, 8MP rear camera, 2MP front camera, 16GB internal storage, 2GB RAM, micro SD card slot, HDMI port, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, 4G LTE and a removable 1,800 mAh battery. The smartphone is priced around a range of Rs 37,500 to Rs 42,490 on Indian online retail sites.

The scheme allows credit card users pay in 9 monthly installments, with no interests or processing fee. Prosenjit Sen says that the scheme is valid for smartphones of other brands as well, but this will be on the discretion of the retailer. "Our retailers will estimate the resale value of the phone brought for exchange and accordingly offer discount," Sen said.

The exchange offer to be available across 1,400 outlets in 17 cities, including four metros - NCR, Bangalore, Baroda, Chandigarh and Lucknow.

Exchange schemes seem to be going on a lot these days. Apple first introduced such a plan for it's iPhone 4, followed by Samsung with it exchange schemes for Galaxy Grand, Note 2, S3, Note 800 handsets. The schemes did work for the two tech giants, but will a similar strategy work for BlackBerry as well? This also makes you wonder, who's next to line to introduce "exchange offers"?