Trade in your smartphone for any other brand

Dubai: A foneswap programme launched across the UAE could provide a solution to a surplus of unwanted BlackBerrys following TRA's announcement on Sunday that all BlackBerry services would be suspended.

Under the umbrella of Koohiji Group, the foneswap programme, launched three months ago, offers customers looking to get rid of old handsets a chance to trade in their mobile phones at an attractive price and purchase any other brand of their choice through the wide network of retail outlets associated with them.

"This will be an option for the customers to shed their handsets quickly if there is a service interruption for BlackBerrys in the country," Pramod Kaddel, general manager of Technocare solutions, told Gulf News.

According to Kaddel, a rise will be seen in BlackBerry trade-ins long before the deadline on October 11. "Most retailers in this market have already stopped selling their BlackBerry subscriptions so it's a likely possibility that people will start swapping before October," he said.

Retailers who have praised the concept as a good alternative don't believe BlackBerry swap-ins will increase much.

"In the immediate aftermath of what just happened, this programme is good as an alternative system. However, even without the BlackBerry application, it will still work as a smartphone with internet access and if someone has spent a lot of money on it, they won't want to swap it as easily.

"There is not going to be a huge amount of new BlackBerrys being swapped but it could increase a bit. But I don't see that as a big business for us," Shanker Iyar, general manager of Emax, said.

The concept, which is present in all major electronic retail outlets, works on two methods. Customers can choose to swap the phone for cash or for a better phone.

In the last three months they have swapped close to 2,000 handsets.

Customers have the option to swap the old units at home, having the handset picked up for free by FedEx and the payment processed within 48 hours, or they can walk into any of the 100 key outlets to trade in their phone for a new one.

Trade-in programmes for corporate organisations are also offered.

"There is huge interest from a lot of corporate organisations for the trade-in trade-up programme which will help them when they need to shed their handsets in large numbers," said Kaddel.

Fair solution

The company claims vendors like Motorola/ Siemens Gigaset etc. are actively promoting the foneswap programme to offer the trade-in/trade up solutions for mobile phone users.

"So far our most popular phone to swap has been Nokia which is not surprising since it owns 70 to 80 per cent of the market. But there are also a number of Apple and BlackBerry phones being swapped," said Kaddel.

According to Iyar, most people who tend to replace their instruments have handsets at the lower end.

"We have had some BlackBerrys and iPhones but not many. People don't tend to swap phones that cost more than Dh1,000 on a regular basis," he said.

The concept is currently available in the UAE and is in the process of expanding to other countries like Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Other initiatives such as the swap for cash scheme on www.zonzoo.me also offer BlackBerry owners a chance to swap their handsets for instant cash.