Sprint scores silly marketing points, pairs BlackBerry 8830 with private island

by Chris Ziegler posted Sep 7th 2007 at 3:58PM

Sprint must figure that if you need a phone whose name includes the phrase "World Edition," you're probably the jet-setting type. Like, the type that needs a private island, apparently. A tipster pointed us out to a pretty clever new ad campaign involving Sprint's BlackBerry 8830 World Edition that offers an enticing combo package: an 8830 for $200 (after contract and rebates, of course) and an "Exotic Island plus amenities" for a shade over ten mil. Total cost: $10.5 million. Of course, if you actually go through the process of trying to place an order, the site calls you out on it -- but here's where it gets interesting, they actually offer to take your information through an email and get you in touch with the appropriate brokers if you are, in fact, serious. Talk about customer service!

[Thanks, Jake]

Filed under: Handsets, RIM, Sprint, 1xRTT, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, EV-DO, CDMA

Tags: 8830, ad, advertising, blackberry, rim, sprint, world edition, WorldEdition

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

Doug @ Sep 7th 2007 4:14PM

For 10.5 million, I hope the island works better than BIS does. It's been down across large swaths of the country (on multiple carriers) for the better part of the day.

Neutral

derX @ Sep 7th 2007 4:24PM

Wait just a doggone minute, Sprint's cust. service is helping people with real estate but they couldn't even resolve an error with my father 's anomalously high phone bill readily?

Dude, get the phone cust. service tight, first, then start Sprint Isles Real Estate, or whatever the hell they wanna call it.

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Oh yeah, at face value, this market ploy seems pretty pitiful.

Neutral

Mario Mejia @ Sep 7th 2007 5:51PM

seriously,

how about they work on NOT keeping me on hold for an hour and leave the Real Estate to someone else.

Sprint, get back to me!

Neutral

Joel G @ Sep 7th 2007 5:53PM

Neutral

waiownsyou @ Sep 7th 2007 6:38PM

LMAO @ Sprint selling Islands

Highest Ranked

Verizon customer @ Sep 7th 2007 7:04PM

Does the island even have Sprint service?

Neutral

Big R. @ Sep 7th 2007 9:50PM

Good deal Sprint. Eff the haters!!

Neutral

Zeroo @ Sep 8th 2007 9:12AM

Lol, island selling.

Neutral

Michitastic @ Sep 8th 2007 9:30AM

I'd buy it. If I had the money.

Neutral

TechBillionaire @ Sep 11th 2007 12:25AM

I think this is absolutely BRILLIANT marketing on the part of Sprint. Thank God there is some REAL innovation in this space!

Neutral

wendy kovacs @ Sep 18th 2007 9:34PM

I have a great sense of humor and am very open minded but for some reason I find this ad offensive and tasteless. With all the problems that could be solved with 10.5 billion dollars, the implied arrogance in the ad just does not strike my funny bone.

Neutral