BlackBerry's

Asking if you folk tend to buy your BlackBerry smartphones SIM free from a retailer or on a contract with a carrier may sound like a simple question, but I suspect it will be dictated slightly by where in the world you are.

Many people wouldn't consider buying the device SIM free purely because it means paying for the handset in full, up front - something that most people in this day and age probably can't afford. This is where the geographical details come into play as in some parts of the world, such as India, you don't have a choice but to pay the full price of the smartphone up front - so I'm told.

With the BlackBerry Passport and Classic rolling out over the next few months the decision of whether to buy unlocked or from a carrier on a contract will be playing on many peoples minds - not just the consumer, but enterprise customers too.

Here in the UK and in many other countries around the world we have options when it comes to purchasing a new BlackBerry.

Option one is that we buy the device SIM free, normally from an online retailer and pay the full price. This gives us the freedom to swap carriers if we want, as 30 day contracts are available and also, to just get a SIM-only plan from a carrier, which will be much cheaper each month than if the price of the phone needed to be added into the equation.

Option two is to stick with a carrier and get the BlackBerry on a one or two year contract. This allows us to pay for the device monthly over the allotted contract time - which often is best for cash flow but arguably costs you more over the long term because after all, that device isn't really 'free'.

So how do you purchase yours? Let us know in the following poll please.

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