Motorola Finalizes $100 Trade-Up Program For Old Devices Basically A Rebate Deal

When Motorola announced a few months back that it was not going to update most of its 2011 Android devices to Jelly Bean, owners were understandably upset. Moto attempted to calm the masses by offering a $100 trade-in credit. Now the details have been finalized and the program is looking much less appealing than everyone had hoped.

Eligible devices are the Droid 3, Droid X2, Admiral, Atrix 2, Atrix 4G, Cliq2, Electrify, Photon 4G, XPRT, Titanium, and Triumph. If you have one of these, you're in the program. Rather than offering you a discount on the purchase of your new phone, this is basically a glorified rebate. The website simply offers instructions on how to get your rebate card. If you're getting a Verizon phone, you will have to go in and buy your new phone without any discount. The Verizon staff will then take the old phone and give you a $100 Verizon gift card. You can use that to buy accessories or pay your monthly bill.

Other carriers are a little more of a hassle. You'll have to go into the store, buy the new phone, and send your old one to Motorola along with proof of purchase for the new Motorola handset. In 6-8 weeks, Moto sends you a Visa gift card for $100. You might be thinking that it's nice to be getting something, but you are actually handing over the old phone. All they're giving you is $100, and Verizon is locking you into spending it all there. You could make more money selling the old device on Craigslist for cold hard cash.

[Moto Trade Up; Thanks Tim]