[KirkusMaBobus91]

Does anyone think that BlackBerry should rebrand the name of BB10? I find it has too much link to BBOS which with my experience in trying to introduce people to BB10 is not a good thing. I know they've already rebranded from RIM to BlackBerry, but the name "BlackBerry" still has a lot of stigma to it which isn't really helping their cause with converting people. What are you're guys thoughts?

Posted via CB10

[BigBadWulf]

The carriers will know, and stock it similarly. The reviewers will know, and while they've been good with the Passport I doubt they'll find a name change positive. Neither will the market.

The problem is, as it has been for years, marketing. Till people see what BlackBerry is about with BB10, in ways that get them excited, nothing will get the masses motivated.

[ymb]

Great idea call it qnx 10 which people will associate with the car information systems

Z30STA100-3/10.2.1.3289

[menshawy]

Great idea call it qnx 10 which people will associate with the car information systems

Z30STA100-3/10.2.1.3289

I think it won't help the cause much. They wi say QNX 10 which used to be BlackBerry

Posted via CB10

[BigBadWulf]

And other than insiders, who knows whether their car infotainment is powered by QNX?

[quimbydogg]

The problem is, as it has been for years, marketing. Till people see what BlackBerry is about with BB10, in ways that get them excited, nothing will get the masses motivated.

When the Z10 and Q10 were released I worked on behalf of BlackBerry at many cellular stores around my area. It was my job to go into the store, setup a BlackBerry demo table, give full hands on demo of the new operating system/phones to consumers as well as cover functionality with the cellular workers selling the phones. More often than not the consumers would be excited about a new BlackBerry product but the different carrier's employees wouldn't know how to use or have any interest in selling those particular phones to anyone one - so they didn't.

Many consumers that I actually had the chance to talk 1 on 1 with were very interested in BlackBerry products because they really liked them in the past, especially enjoyed having a physically keyboard, but felt like they were forced to move on to Android or iPhone because it took so long for BB10 to be developed with a "modern webbrowsing/smart phone experience." Most of these consumers would be easy converts back to BlackBerry if they were actually made aware of the features/functionality of the phone. To this end many of the consumers I spoke with had no idea there was even a new BlackBerry device months after release. I'm sure this is the case even now after more than a year.

As comission based, the cellular sales associates are going to do whatever is best to earn their pay check - I can't really fault them for that, it is the way the system works and they need to make sure they can eat too. To that end most try to sell only the iphone or android because they know that consumers generally accept those devices and they have a low rate of return. Something discussed with me a lot was rate of return and sales associates are far less likely to take a chance on something new than something "tried and true by the majority of their user base". If an unhappy person comes back to the store a week or two later that sales associate now needs to spend just as much time, if not more, processing a return and a then setting up different phone (this is at best, at worst the customer would do a return and purchase their phone elsewhere - making the sales associate really miss out on their meal that week). Another point similar to this is the initial setup time for a new customer. These sales associates setup an insane amount of iPhone and Android devices each day and it is all the same - they have that routine down to a simple clock work to move the customer through the process as fast as possible and hopefully move on to their next sale. Being present for several "first time BB10 activations" I saw how painfully long it took sales associates to have a phone setup in fully working order for a customer to walk out the door with. Now you take that fact along with all sorts of shady insentives (like Samsung saying if you sell X of these phones you get a free tablet) and suddenly there is very little sales insentive at all for cellular sales assocaites to sell BlackBerry devices. Even if a customer comes in directly saying "What can you tell me about the new BlackBerry" they will be more inclined than not to start leading them toward an iPhone or Android device.

One of the basic tasks I asked most sales associates to do as a test when I went to their stores was to take a picture using the Q10 or Z10 - nearly all of them had to ask me how to do that and of course I was more than happy to show them. When the sales associates are not even aware of how to demo such a basic feature for a potential customer it is a pretty good indicator (in my mind) of how likely they are to try to sell that product to anyone.

[BigBadWulf]

quimbydogg, thank you. I've met many of your team. They all did a great job, but for the reasons you listed, we're ineffective. I believe had BlackBerry marketed better, and drove demand into the stores, it would have turned the tide, forcing salesmen to become familiar and positive.

[100bigdaddy]

You make excellent points. All of them are valid. The key is marketing and BlackBerry has a big problem in this department.

I have not seen anything in the media that shows off the features of the Passport. There have been news stories about the Passport but no ads touting its abilities . On the flipside I've seen lots of IPhone ads.

Supposedly BlackBerry has a new ad agency but when will it start marketing the Passport?

As I said before your points hit the nail on the head. BlackBerry needs to be creative and get the sales people to sell BlackBerry products.

Posted via CB10

[Jimberry Storm]

No

Posted via CB10

[thurask]

Understandable, but then again, their current focus is people sticking with the old BBOS because the shiny, new, rebranded BB10 didn't interface with their cotton gin or whatever.

Maybe after BBOS is phased out/reduced to a negligible amount of users they can focus on a big rebrand. Or, better yet, finding marketers that don't leave puddles of drool wherever they go.

Posted via CB10

[johnnyuk]

There was a rumour going round in the summer that BB10.3.x will be the last version of the OS called BlackBerry 10.

What it would be called in future is anyone's guess but BES is getting a bump up from 10 to 12, so BlackBerry 12 or BlackBerry OS 12 would be a reasonable shot in the dark.

Posted from my BlackBerry Z30 STA100-2 /10.2.1.3247 on O2 UK - Activated on BES10.2.4

[okanagan]

Does anyone think that BlackBerry should rebrand the name of BB10? I find it has too much link to BBOS which with my experience in trying to introduce people to BB10 is not a good thing. I know they've already rebranded from RIM to BlackBerry, but the name "BlackBerry" still has a lot of stigma to it which isn't really helping their cause with converting people. What are you're guys thoughts?

Posted via CB10

Rebrand again? Just as bad ad put up for sale sign, definitely not sir. The money would be well spend for something else than fooling around with the name, just my opinion and no offend here.

[byteninja2]

Rebrand again? Just as bad ad put up for sale sign, definitely not sir. The money would be well spend for something else than fooling around with the name, just my opinion and no offend here.

I agree. It cost enough money to rebrand Blackberry, no need for them to spend more. And a rebrand is unecessary anyways, ""BB10" is hip enough.

[ChicaneBT]

In the case of Apple and I think Blackberry no one cares about the name of the OS. People go and buy an iPhone or the go and buy Android phone. See the difference? Blackberry should work hard on the Amazon Store and Android Runtime to get a smooth as possible Android experience on BB.