Has T-Mobile stooped to a new low, or is this a genius marketing idea?
Leadked T-Mobile memo
A leaked internal T-Mobile memo reads, “Great news for Apple iPhone customers who want to purchase an HTC HD2 — from April 1 through May 19, customers can trade in their Apple iPhone and get up to a $350 credit when purchasing an HTC HD2 at participating T-Mobile dealers, through 1-800-TMOBILE, or through a business direct sales representative.”
HTC HD2 is a Windows Mobile 6.5 devices that was introduced last October. The catch here is that the Windows Mobile OS cannot be upgraded to the Windows Phone 7.
In order to qualify for the trade in, there are a few requirements like the iPhone has to be working and in good condition.
What’s T-Mobile Up To?
My guess is that T-Mobile wants to lure in customers by practically giving away a seemingly worthless phone. Then, after the customer is with T-Mobile for awhile, that customer will then see the benefits of upgrading to something like an Android powered device.
“If this thing was an Android, I would think that was something I’d want to look at,” said Mike Disabato, a senior analyst at the Burton Group, a division of Gartner. “If you are a dot-net shop, you will love it. If you are not a dot-net shop, there’s no compelling business reason to go get it. And oh, by the way, the iPad is out.”
This is almost a desperate pitch by T-Mobile to get new customers. I guess they figured they would find someway to leverage the popularity of the iPhone to bring attention to T-Mobile – even if it means trading in the iPhone!
6 replies on “T-Mobile Practically Giving Away HTC HD2 to iPhone Users”
"Seemingly worthless phone"? Sheesh – bias much? One could argue that WinMo 6.5 is the best version since WinMo 7 breaks backwards compatibility.
Fair point Algort – I don't necessarily mean "worthless" and that was probably a bad choice of words – what I was trying to get across was that since the WinMo 6.5 cannot be upgraded, there isn't much use once you need to update.
I am loving my HD 2, as to the limitations of 6.5 if indeed you are correct and the tweets from microsoft workers are idle gossip, I still think its a great phone, No disrespect but the way you write leaves the impression that like Glenn Beck someone is paying you to be critical