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Possibly a harsh title, but as far as I can see it must be true, looking at the evidence. The guilty party is EE. Don't get me wrong - I'm a fan of the company, in fact I'm a customer and have no plans to change that. But it frustrates me how I see them either not offering BlackBerry smartphones as an option to customers - or pricing them so high that it makes sense to choose another device.
I'm sure that EE are not alone in terms of carriers around the world failing to be pro-BlackBerry. I've got no issues with highlighting the companies lack of enthusiasm to support our favorite brand. After all, we want BlackBerry to be as successful as possible and things are now moving in the right direction for them, but there's always room for improvement.
I accepted the fact that BlackBerry wanted to focus handset sales within the enterprise market long ago and so the fact that it's not easy to purchase a BlackBerry 10 device as a consumer on the highstreet isn't an issue for me. So let's take a look at the options that EE offer to it's UK customers compared with the other major players.
We'll focus on small business users for this. I would have included large businesses as well but EE are now not offering any BlackBerry devices to those customers on their website - not a great start!
So if I was a small business user looking to get myself a new BlackBerry and I was checking out the options from three of the major players in the UK market I'd be able to order a BlackBerry from them all. However, the pricing is quite interesting. Over at Vodafone I'd be able to pick up the BlackBerry Classic for £26.67 per month. The price at O2 isn't far from that, coming in at £30.00 per month. Now it's over to EE where the BlackBerry Classic, Passport or Q10 will set you back a whopping £60 each month!
I realize that the plans that the BlackBerry comes with may well vary in terms of the amount of minutes or data you get, but with EE advertising prices that are double the competition I can't imagine this is a great incentive for potential customers. Either they will go with another carrier or pick up an iPhone or Android device for £20 per month less.
I'm hoping that by me publishing this article EE will take note and advertise their BlackBerry 10 devices at a more attractive price. Unless they don't want to sell them? Do you have your own frustrations with carriers? Have your say in the comments?
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