BlackBerry is going to rewrite history today
by Volker Weber
BlackBerry is going to make a marketing move that nobody has tried before. The standard process goes like this: you talk to analysts, then you talk to press, then you talk to the public. Companies that have known me for a while tend to put me into the analyst bucket, those who don't into the press bucket.
Here is the new move: BlackBerry will talk to the public at 5pm and then to the press at 10pm.
I am not sure what that means. Without any insights into what they put up their sleeves a few things are obvious:
- "Software is the new BlackBerry" is kind of backwards. BlackBerry is making software, that is what it says. Software does not fall out of the sky, like hardware often seems to. That means, you can build it out over the years and make it something like BES 12.x, or you can buy it, like WatchDox. There are no real surprises.
- If you can't make new things fall out of the sky, you can paint them a new color. That is called re-branding. Example: what was once Lotus Notes became IBM Lotus Notes, and then IBM Notes. If "Software is the new BlackBerry", then software gets a new name. Things that were once called x, are now called y. And that means things will be called BlackBerry that were not called BlackBerry before.
- Painting things a different color does not change much but the looks of it. As I said, software moves rather slowly. But it's often the case that perception and reality don't match. BlackBerry is still perceived as a maker of smartphones and a software company that manages those smartphones. And they need to change that. They want to be perceived as a software company that manages all sorts of endpoints, not only their own smartphones, not even foremost their own. The software can do that today. But the public does not know, and the competition is interested in keeping it that way.
The transition is already happening, as you may have noticed on your Android device. This used to be WatchDox.
Here is a little before and after comparison. WatchDox or BlackBerry Workspaces is a DRM scheme that locks away your files.
Speaking to the public first and to press later means something that I haven't figured out yet. We will find out tonight. I hope it's not stupid.
Comments
Could be a BES rebrand