Gazelle Online Reports An 80% Increase In BlackBerry Trade-Ins Over The Last Month

Gazelle, one of the largest electronic trade-in service has reported a massive spike in BlackBerry trade-ins. Gazelle's Chief Gadget Officer Anthony Scarsella seems to think that " Consumers could be starting to fear the end of the Canadian based device maker." Unfortunately Mr. Scarsella's opinions seem to seem to be shared by quite a few others, and the term "RIM is dead", has also been loosely.

Scarsella goes on to say that the company's "data illustrates that BlackBerry trade-ins have risen 80% above the normal 30-day average since March 1st here at Gazelle [...] Consumers could be starting to fear the end of the Canadian based device maker. BlackBerry owners are indeed starting to dump their current smartphones before their beloved BBM and email support comes to a screeching stop if RIM collapse. The fear of rapid depreciation and unsupported devices has consumers upgrading to other platforms quicker than ever before.”

One would have to be in denial if they did not see the sudden spike in BlackBerry trade-ins as a concern, but what about the comments about consumers fearing the end of RIM. Is there any truth to this? To be frank, there actually is, but for the wrong reasons. The fact is that consumers are suckers when it comes to going with whatever the media says. Comments like " RIM is dead" are simply not true and are based on the medias assumption rather than the cold hard facts. Last I checked a company that is worth over 7 Billion dollars was considered to be doing quite well, A dead company is bankrupt and simply can't move on, a dead company has no hope for a future, a dead company, has no plans for the future. I would venture to say that RIM has addressed all of those characteristics that mark a dead company.

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