
RIM Changes Company Name to BlackBerry - youngerdryas
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-30/rim-changes-company-name-to-blackberry.html
======
bcantrill
This brings back many bad memories of Sun changing its ticker symbol from the
venerable "SUNW" to "JAVA" -- may BBRY not share the same fate!

That said, let me take this moment to restate a prediction I have made a few
times over the last two years: ORCL will, in the end, buy BBRY. After every
customer that has a choice leaves, BBRY will be left with only those customers
who can't actually leave. ORCL feasts on such wounded animals, and like a
marine apex predator, can sense them from an ocean away...

~~~
tptacek
In fairness to Sun, in the last 5-10 years of its existence, it really was The
Java Company; a huge portion of all its sales went to companies deploying and
scaling enterprise Java web applications.

Moreover, by the end of the '90s, Sun's original raison d'être --- Unix
workstations --- was gone and buried.

~~~
bcantrill
Yes, workstations were gone -- and they had been replaced by server revenue.
Contrary to your assertion, server revenue (and associated service revenue)
was the lion's share of Sun's revenue; if you add up all Java revenue
(primarily Java ME) and subtract all Java NRE, Java was -- pathetically -- net
neutral to Sun. So to those of us who actually brought in revenue instead of
dining out on it, the ticker change was the embodiment of the persistent
delusion that we were something other than a computing systems company...

~~~
tptacek
My point was that the reason people bought Sun servers was to run enterprise
Java apps.

(In case this makes it clearer: what percentage of large Sun server customers
used the majority of those servers to run some kind of Java container server?
Do you think maybe over 75%? From working with F-500 companies as a consultant
in the mid-00's, my observation is closer to 100%; if you were a bank with Sun
servers, the reason you had them was that Sun provided the can't-get-fired-
for-choosing platform for J2EE.)

~~~
dsl
I think thats just an observational bias of companies that went the consultant
route. Java was the hot new technology that consultants could bill lots of
hours for, so you started to see it everywhere with weak internal IT/systems
groups.

Working in the manufacturing/CAD industry at the time, I ran a Sun and SGI
shop. Business applications that ran only on Solaris were a much larger demand
generator for Sun hardware than some new fancy runtime that at the time could
be confused for a passing fad.

We also liked Sun hardware for internal apps because they could literally run
for 10+ years in a room filled with a constant mist of machine oil and
coolant.

~~~
tptacek
I'm not a Java consultant. The CAD Sun buyers were workstation customers,
weren't they?

I do not think Java web applications were a smaller demand generator for Sun
than Motif applications were.

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bravura
_Chief Executive Officer Thorsten Heins is unveiling the first phones built on
the BlackBerry 10 operating system this morning in New York. The new software
is designed to let users multitask more effectively than on rival devices,
including the iPhone. Heins is looking to grab the attention of smartphone
buyers who have dumped their aging BlackBerrys in recent years for Apple Inc.
(AAPL) and Google Inc.’s Android._

Seriously? Your plan to fight iPhones and Droid devices is to tout your
phone's multitasking ability?

How many consumers complain about their phone's multitasking capabilities? How
many consumers even understand what that means?

[edit: If they are talking about the business meaning of "multitask", as some
child comments have noted, then I agree that this would be a cool feature. I
also find it annoying how hard it is to do work in multiple apps at once.]

~~~
chaz
I'm tired of pogo-sticking in and out of the various apps to get one thing
done. For example, if I get an email asking if I'm ok to meet at 3pm on Friday
at Joey's Cafe. Today, I need to jump to my calendar app, see if I'm available
at that time. I also need to check where Joey's Cafe is located via Google
Maps, so I can make it over there after my 1pm meeting. I also need to jump to
my task manager app to remind myself to prep notes in advance of the meeting.

The vision painted here is to move swiftly between the core things you do the
most. Whether or not the execution is sufficient, it's hard to say without
trying it out in person. But the BlackBerry Hub looks like a good start.

[http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/30/3929760/blackberry-z10-rev...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/1/30/3929760/blackberry-z10-review)

~~~
chimeracoder
I find this to be an incredible annoyance on iOS, particularly iOS 5 and
earlier, but I have to say that Android really nails this experience with the
'intent' model - I don't think twice before opening Google Maps directly from
a Google Calendar event that was itself created directly from an email that I
read in my inbox.

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HorizonXP
This is a welcome change. Ever since I worked there back in 2004 as a co-op,
the incessant jokes about having a "RIM job" were funny at first, but got
tiring.

Ignoring that, this makes total sense from the consumer perspective. Nobody
knew who RIM was, all they knew was BlackBerry. It is going to simplify a lot
of things for them in terms of marketing and communications.

I've been anticipating this launch since last April, when I first heard about
the Dev Alpha prototype devices. After having used them for over 8 months, and
actively developing for the platform, I can say that I was pretty happy with
today's launch announcement. I didn't really expect it to be Earth-shattering,
and it wasn't.

It will be a long time before BlackBerry has the impact that Apple has in the
marketplace. Today's launch wasn't going to have the pomp and flair everyone
expected. Sales are not going to be a huge spike. Rather, things will ramp up
slowly for BlackBerry. More and more people will try it out, and be wooed by
the much improved interface. Your stalwart users of legacy BlackBerry will
likely move over in droves though.

I actively develop for Android as well, and I can say that BlackBerry
development has done so many things right. It is really a dream to develop
apps for. As a user, it's fantastic too.

In the future, I really think RIM will be competing against Android/Google,
rather than Apple. Android 4.2 is a thing of beauty, and really raises the
bar. I don't think BB10 is quite there, but all the pieces are in place. The
next 6-12 months will see a rapid evolution of BB10, and we can better assess
how things will progress.

~~~
bertzzie
> I actively develop for Android as well, and I can say that BlackBerry
> development has done so many things right. It is really a dream to develop
> apps for. As a user, it's fantastic too.

I haven't seen and tried BB's SDK, but could you elaboreate more? Didn't they
still use Java ME (which sucks compared to Android's IMO)?

~~~
ampersandy
BB10 is nothing like the older platforms, which kinda sucked. You couldn't
even run code on a test device without getting it signed by RIM, and the
service crashed frequently.

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mark-r
The phrase "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" comes to mind.

~~~
roc
What else do you want the marketing department to do, when the flagship
product they've been prepping to sell has been delayed for so long?

~~~
dbecker
Ok, maybe there isn't else they can do. That doesn't mean that this rebranding
is going to help.

~~~
roc
Of course not. But it isn't the problem either. It's just a PR shrug.

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interconnector
Pogue seems to like it: [http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/technology/the-
blackberry-...](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/technology/the-blackberry-
refreshed-lives-to-fight-another-day.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&smid=tw-nytimes)

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wasd
>A subtle light blinks above the screen to indicate that something — a text,
an e-mail message, voice mail, a Facebook post — is waiting for you.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't android do the same thing? It seems to be
the case for my Galaxy Nexus.

~~~
discodave
No no, on the Gnex the light is below the screen, it's completeley different.

In other news, the light on my gnex blinks white for sms, green for app
notifications and blue for facebook notifications EXCEPT that the facebook
messenger app (seperate from the main fb app) blinks green.... why?

~~~
ElliotH
>> why? Same as the 'why' for many Android apps. The API is huge, the
potentials on different devices are barely countable and Google's developer
advice is sadly lacking. This inevitably results in developers forgetting
things like LED colours etc.

(I'm a fan of Android, I wouldn't buy a phone without it at the moment, but it
really is a weak point. Especially when compared to iOS where Apple seems to
really nail home how an app is supposed to behave on their platform)

~~~
UnoriginalGuy
No iOS devices even hae a notification LED, so how can Apple "nail home how an
app is supposed to behave?" Or is your point that you'd assume Apple would
accomplish that if it had the LED?

~~~
ElliotH
Apologies. I mustn't have made myself clear. I was referring to documentation
of features in general. One could of course extrapolate this to how Apple
would handle LEDs, but it wasn't really my point.

To clarify I really do like Android, I just wish documentation of recommended
behaviour was brought front and centre.

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callmevlad
This [1] is the BlackBerry website on the day of their massive rebrand and the
launch of BlackBerry 10. I had to hide my Chrome bookmark bar on my 13-inch
screen just to see any mention of the new OS. Maybe they should tell someone
in the website department that it's kind of a big deal.

[1] <http://i.imgur.com/EjrIvJY.jpg>

Edit: I guess someone at BlackBerry saw my comment and changed it several
minutes later ;) It's now (at 4PM EST) a lot more relevant to today's events:
<http://i.imgur.com/HvGw9tF.jpg>

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SODaniel
As much as it probably is a good idea, it's a little worrying when a company
amidst a crisis takes the time to work on their brand name and make room for
that announcement in a webcast that literally defines whether or not the
company will survive another 18 months.

~~~
blktiger
It seems like a smart move to me. Unfortunately, I think it's too little, too
late.

~~~
loceng
Not so sure, there are a lot of Canadians, including myself, that are hoping
they create a good platform with a good touch interface. They could have done
this 5-10 years ago, and been Apple - but for whatever reason they just
stopped innovating. If Canadians switch back to BB, and other people around
the world start picking them as their preferred brand, then could easily be
10s of millions of sales initially, and as they improve the platform offerings
and devices, could be hundreads of millions of sales.

~~~
megablast
All the Canadians in the world will not save them.

If they do manage to turn around, it will be one of the biggest turnarounds
since maybe Apple or IBM.

~~~
dj2stein9
If you take all Canadians 18-65, you'd maybe have 20 million in sales. Apple
sells that many iPhones in a month.

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georgemcbay
They should have done this a long time ago. Not that it would have changed
much considering their flubs on the implementation side, but the BlackBerry
brand was always much stronger than RIM.

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pohl
Now when people make snide references to "that fruity consumer electronics
company" one can be deliberately obtuse about which one.

As a bonus, they're even "beleaguered".

~~~
beggi
Every time someone uses that phrase they will be referring to Apple :)

~~~
Samuel_Michon
So true, I never hear consumers talk about Blackberry anymore.

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SODaniel
Well, if nothing else it will probably make the SEO for their job-site a lot
easier.

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bstar77
Usually companies want to restructure their corporate initiatives away from a
dying brand. This makes it all the more obvious that all of their eggs are in
one basket.

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nchlswu
This move makes sense and is well overdue in my mind -- at least from a
consumer perspective. The Playbook was branded as the "BlackBerry Playbook"
not the RIM Playbook, which was ridiculous IMO (and still is). But they've
made the decision and recognize that the RIM name is probably unrecognizable
to the consumer, but BlackBerry is. I'm fairly certain the rest of their
offerings to business (ie. BIS or BES) are associated or under the BlackBerry
name anyways.

Dropping the "RIM" name makes sense, although the timing is distracting

~~~
mladenkovacevic
I don't know if I agree with you. I felt like there was quite a clear
delineation between the RIM and the Blackberry brands and I don't get the
sense that consumers were confused about the two. Also I feel like RIM would
have been a good name to keep if they decided down the road that they wanted
to licence their software services technology to other companies and keep
those efforts separate from their consumer hardware division (aka
"Blackberry").

~~~
nchlswu
For a long time, I agreed that the RIM parent company makes sense if their
software services were being licensed out.

I'm making an assumption (and I think the rebrand supports this) that RIM/BB
has made a conscious decision to be a consumer hardware company, that is their
priority, and any software services are a value-add or in support of their
hardware. While this comparison is weak, it's almost like how Apple can be
seen as a hardware company and the iCloud is in support of it.

I do think the renaming was probably made in haste, to coincide with BB10's
release

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flxmglrb
It won't help. They are as dead as a doornail.

Further proof: <http://youtube.com/watch?v=WlsahuZ_4oM>

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dhughes
Anyone I know who talks about Blackberry never says RIM or Research in Motion.

I even suggested it once over at reddit in /r/blackberry that RIM should just
change its name to BlackBerry but was down voted into oblivion. Now there's a
post about the naysayers who said it should happen.

I'm Canadian, proud BlackBerry are Canadian and I agree the name change makes
sense I'm glad they did it.

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Ralz
I got a BlackBerry job doesn't have the same ring to it

~~~
marknutter
Unless that's what the kids are calling it these days..

------
icki
I think it's a smart move, and would allow them to more effectively market
their products/services on competing platforms. Now that BlackBerry does not
necessarily mean a particular brand of smartphone, we can see BlackBerry for
Android/iPhone/Windows Phone, etc.

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Zenst
Deja Vue in so many ways in what happened to Palm. They had a new OS and
devices, they were also Canadian based.

So given that somebody will buy RIM aka Blackberry and then do an HP on them.

Hope I'm wrong, but I see a Nortels chance of it not panning out that way
sadly.

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bryanlarsen
Here in Ottawa, the advertisements on the sides of the bus advertise jobs at
QNX rather than for RIM or Blackberry.

~~~
rescripting
QNX is a subsidiary of BlackBerry, but they still do all their own hiring and
a fair bit of marketing. You'd be applying to work at QNX, not at BlackBerry.
Not to say there isn't a ton of crossover.

~~~
bryanlarsen
Yes, but if it was fashionable to work at RIM, they would mention that in the
ads.

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ron_m
Too much, too little, too late. These could be great phones (and actually look
very nice), but it doesn't matter. BB is a dead company walking. It lost its
market share long ago and they aren't going to suddenly magically get it back.

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pooriaazimi
What was "Research in Motion" supposed to mean anyway? I never got that.

~~~
BaconJuice
It's an identity. What does Apple mean? An identity.

~~~
nchlswu
The problem here is all the accrued Brand Equity was for the BlackBerry
brand/identity, not RIM's

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bitwize
It reminds me of when Tandy Corp. changed their name to "RadioShack" (without
the space).

------
RyanMcGreal
Up next: Apple changes its name to iCompany.

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hbbio
Seems like research has stopped.

------
logn
Good idea: tie the identity of your company 100% to your failing phone line.

------
danbmil99
Problem solved.

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fecaldog
Do you think they are sad they no longer have RIM jobs?

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alaskamiller
<http://rim.jobs> won't work no more, :(

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Zenst
Oh this smells of desperation. Rebranding the company costs headed stationary,
signs etc - not that cheap and RIMberry are the last who can realy afford it.
I honestly don't think they have thought this thru, its like closing my eye's
and going you can't see me now. Still have the shite middle managment to mess
things up.

~~~
camus
totally agree , rebranding is quite expansive and it is just one of these
voodoo idea when everything else failed ... just sell the company already and
you'll be better off ... or go with android and make the best hardware money
can afford...

~~~
Zenst
Oh they missed a great opertunity to sell rebranded hardware and move there
enterprise software onto linux. That would of opened up a more rubust and
profitable area they ended up giving away selling lots of copies of Microsofts
exchange for others.

They then overly focused upon the consumer market at a neglect of the business
area, which was the core. The upshot is they ended up alienating a lot of
influential business types and that filtered down into lots of bad words about
them and a share price reflected it as in they could do no right in the end.

Now QNX was a good move, but that has been a overly slow adoption to the
extent that they ended up having to release newer versions of there older OS.
During this phase they lost a lot of good staff and things got messy. But we
now after years laetr have the product they should of had at least a year ago.

The new OS is nice, but for many it is too little too late. They have now in
some ways aliented there growing market by not having a cheap device available
and no OS upgrade available for there lesser handsets. They will for all
appears end up alienating there growing markets in an attemt to regain there
lost business customers.

Still the same opertunities being missed and whilst I wish them luck they have
yet to try and cash in on Apple and Android users via a paid for application
that does there email and messaging. Some would pay for that and it could even
get people thinking about there phones next time they upgrade. But that is
another of many missed opertunities they just seem to let slip by. The upper
managment has changed, a lot of staff have changed and with that the problem
really has to be in the middle.

