[guygardner73]

BlackBerry should change the name of the company to Stark Enterprises and make all the phones red and gold.

Z10STL100-2/10.2.1.1925 O2 UK

[cbvinh]

Nokia is an interesting prospect right now because they made great hardware and emphasized making great cameras which in turn make it easy to market to the mass. Its a smart play and we won't really know if it pays off but it sure is a start.

That's exactly what BB needs to do, make a device that is great but at the same time they need to have a feature that they can differentiate from the rest of the pack and for it to have mass appeal. They also need to have different variations at different price points it also needs to be easy to market.

Nokia did such a great job that they had to sell their devices business to Microsoft...

[cbvinh]

BlackBerry should change the name of the company to Stark Enterprises and make all the phones red and gold.

You betray yourself to Marvel, Green Lantern!

[sianto]

It's pretty much a hybrid of 2 operating systems, or at least it is moving in that direction quite quickly. I predict it will be renamed by the end of this year under John Chen with a greater focus on Android compatibility.

If you could name the os what would you call it? I think it needs a name less generic than the name of the company and a number. Something that sounds futuristic yet friendly. Google has done a good job with Android and it's os names. Maybe name it after the moon. Lunar 1.0

The line of phones also needs Re branding as well, a letter and a number is great for a car I guess, but not a phone if you want people to remember the name and identify with it, but that's another thread.

Sent from my Z30

WTF are you talking about, Google didn't come up with names, Andy Rubin thought of them, Android, and all it flavors (except KitKat, but thats just marketing). Don't forget Android is just another acquired company!

[sianto]

Nokia did such a great job that they had to sell their devices business to Microsoft...

All because Microsofts trojan horse Elop, who soon will be the boss of Microsoft, this promotion was thought out 3 years ago. However Microsoft will still trow money on Windows Phone, and every other manufacturer will leave it for dead. Windows Phone is even more dead than BB10, Microsoft just wants you to believe it isn't. (and their deep pockets enable them to keep the project alive, but not one major update this year is just pathetic (don't say GDR3, because really? Your biggest update is that you can now close apps? EVERYONE HAD THAT!). They (desperately) want to be a hardware manufacturer, because thats where the money is.)

[SK122387]

99% of people can't relate to that name, it's meaningless unfortunately

Sent from my Z30

No one could relate to iOS when it first launched either. It was just as meaningless...

QNX is more powerful and in more types of systems than iOS will most likely ever be in.

[SunshineStateFlyer]

I don't think what BlackBerry needs right now is the financial and strategic effort of a Re-branding. That will only lead to more confusion with the users and I seriously doubt that it will bring any improvements to the company's situation.

People don't know what bb10 is - some don't even want to know. That is to be changed and I believe that the brand reception can be changed in time.

Posted via CB10

[guygardner73]

You betray yourself to Marvel, Green Lantern!

Damn, I'm such a dirty **ore.

Z10STL100-2/10.2.1.1925 O2 UK

[darkehawke]

What they are doing now is already failing. BlackBerry needs a new image. They need to get the idea of qwerty cheap curves out of the minds of the general public.

Sent from my Z30

I agree what they are doing is failing now.
I hope you realise that those cheap curves is what made BlackBerry thrive. Turn your back on those customers, well see what is happening now as that is exactly what BlackBerry have done with BlackBerry 10

Posted via CB10

[Marios199546]

It's pretty much a hybrid of 2 operating systems, or at least it is moving in that direction quite quickly. I predict it will be renamed by the end of this year under John Chen with a greater focus on Android compatibility.

If you could name the os what would you call it? I think it needs a name less generic than the name of the company and a number. Something that sounds futuristic yet friendly. Google has done a good job with Android and it's os names. Maybe name it after the moon. Lunar 1.0

The line of phones also needs Re branding as well, a letter and a number is great for a car I guess, but not a phone if you want people to remember the name and identify with it, but that's another thread.

Sent from my Z30

i believe that you heard this rebaranding of BB10 right because i heard this too.
And i have a possible name :QNX 10

[Sallem]

Renaming seems senseless and means desperation. A renaming will be something the resentful medias are waiting for. They will postulate something like betrayal to the brand of BlackBerry, a try to cheat consumers, they will suppose missing confidence of BlackBerry.... The general mistake IMO was to launch BB10 not as QNX or alike. With a good marketing (yes yes I know- good marketing and BlackBerry is a contradiction in terms!) BlackBerry was able to introduce the name of QNX as a brandnew OS (different from the legacy OS), as a restart in a tradition of a reliable brand.... The customers would guess the good properties of BlackBerry combined with a NEW software (which is in use in nuclear plants, ISS Spacestation, around 60% of all cars, etc.)... Giving names like "galaxy" or alike is very difficult cause of existing trademarks, copyrights and ambiguity in different languages... and I see no problems with "Q10" or "Z30".... If I voice "R8" everybody will instantly associate AUDI, cause this name is bounded with quality and outstanding phenomenon... If BlackBerry/QNX would get a similar customer perception a Z30 (f.e.) could provoke the same goosebumps like R8 does.... But now its to late to rename the brand or the OS or the products- it would be only cringe-making...

I agree with you up-to a point. However, renaming the product of a company in a way like stitching it's emblem with it's owned OS like QNX will not affect it negatively, rather it will affect it positively provided they introduce alongside it a new features in OS and Apps store.

[sonicwheeler]

As damaged as the BlackBerry brand has become, it is still recognisable worldwide. It would be a huge mistake to rebrand at this point. What they really need to do is get back to what they are good at. You never disregard the power of a brand regardless of how damaged it is. Marketing Basics

[ubizmo]

As damaged as the BlackBerry brand has become, it is still recognisable worldwide. It would be a huge mistake to rebrand at this point. What they really need to do is get back to what they are good at. You never disregard the power of a brand regardless of how damaged it is. Marketing Basics

There's a difference between rebranding the company and rebranding the OS, which is what the OP was suggesting. I'm certainly not suggesting that the name "BlackBerry" should go away, and I don't think the OP is either.

What puzzles me is the number of people who reject this idea because it doesn't address the bigger problems facing BlackBerry, especially the marketing problem. No sane person would suggest rebranding the OS to the exclusion of all other actions. Every person who says that BlackBerry needs to work on pricing, the app gap, and marketing is absolutely right, but all of that has nothing to do with whether it's a good idea to rebrand the OS, which is what this thread is about.

Except for the marketing part.

Branding or rebranding the OS is in fact part of marketing. At a technical level, most people have no idea what an OS is, and they don't want to know. They have no interest in kernels and process threading and interrupt handling and all the other stuff that the OS does. But the front end of the OS is the UI, the face that the OS presents to the world. People do care about that, even if they don't exactly know that it's called an "OS".

BB10 is the new face of BlackBerry. It's so important that the company didn't release any new phones for a year while they worked to get it ready. It's the main thing that differentiates the post-2012 devices from the pre-2012 devices. They called it BBX but had to change it to BB10. Now, just step back for a moment and ask this question: To the average person who is not a BlackBerry fan, what meaning does "BB10" convey? In my opinion, the most that it conveys is that this is the tenth iteration of something that has been around for a while. What it doesn't convey is something that is brand new, redesigned from the ground up. It seems to me that, as a matter of marketing, the OS name should convey radical departure from the past. BB10 fails in this.

And yes, of course, BB10 itself still needs work, and rebranding it is no substitute for that. That's not in dispute. But again, this isn't a zero-sum option. It's possible to rebrand the OS and continue to improve it, and do all the other things that need to be done.

[Q10Bold]

BB10 is fine!
Z10, Q5,Q10 and Z30 is fine, too.
Z5- lower model maybe the Foxconn one, Q30 the next generation Q10.

[rohetaku]

How about BBQNX10.2 ???

Posted via CB10

[darkehawke]

There's a difference between rebranding the company and rebranding the OS, which is what the OP was suggesting. I'm certainly not suggesting that the name "BlackBerry" should go away, and I don't think the OP is either.

Ahh yes you are right there
I can't see anything wrong with rebranding the os.
That will teach me to read properly in the future

Posted via CB10

[lnichols]

The problem I see is that when someone asks you what kind of phone you use, and you answer with BlackBerry, I get responses of "Aren't they going out of business", "BlackBerry devices are outdated", laughter, etc. I could care less as I know the phone is good, but this is what the name BlackBerry represents to most of the market. They have two options: Rebrand, or rebuild the brand. Both require a huge marketing effort, and we know that BlackBerry couldn't market water in the desert.

On the business/government side it will be no different. On an internal US Government forum I see multiple threads of people wanting to ditch BlackBerry devices in favor of Apple or Android. People associate BlackBerry with negative things when it comes to the smartphone market. The current do nothing strategy is only allowing the name to get more and more tarnished as each day passes. Right now I don't care if they rebrand or rebuild, but they need to put a real effort, and lots of money into one of these two items ASAP.

[JakeTheCat]

Good points ubizmo. IF they re-brand with anything that has a number in it then that number has to be 1 to signal a fresh start. That's what BB10 should have been instead. Not a "leap" from BB7 that nobody knows about anyway. A complete reboot.

Another poster commented on the history of VHS and Betamax. I was always under the impression that the (dirty little) secret to VHS's success was its use in the pornogrophy industry. I suspect the Internet owes more of its growth in traffic in the early years than people give it credit for to the same industry. I wonder if there isn't an angle there for BlackBerry. Not something that would be advertised widely, of course, but if more people knew that BlackBerrys were the best for pornogrophy maybe more people would buy them "because of their security".

Posted via CB10

[extisis]

Wait, what? Porn and security in the same sentence. Didn't think that'd be possible...

Posted via CB10

[breakingpoint0]

I could see BlackBerry rebranding the OS. However, I'm not convinced it would help. To the average person it's a BlackBerry, not a BB10 device. It's a Samsung or Galaxy, not an Android device. It's an iPhone, not an iOS device. The average consumer doesn't generally understand(as has been stated before) what an OS is or that it could be different than the phone. Even if BlackBerry were to rebrand it to say "Eclipse" it would still be a BlackBerry smartphone running Eclipse. People would still see BlackBerry and associate it with whatever feelings they had previously. Think about all the stories we have seen on the forums about people showing off their phone and then as soon as the other person realizes it's a BlackBerry they instantly shut down to the idea of the phone. It's not because it's a BB10 phone, it's because it's a BlackBerry.

What BlackBerry needs to do is rebuild it's brand. I believe they will be working on this via the Enterprise.

My opinion is that the lack of marketing since the launch of BB10 was on purpose. The leaders knew BB10 wasn't quite ready for prime time after it actually got into the hands of people(look at all the reviews from non-BB sites and even some BB sites). So, instead of pushing what many saw as a half baked OS they went quiet. No marketing push means the general public hasn't really had a chance to see the new OS. Not seeing the new OS gives BB a chance to win them back with an aggressive marketing push when they have a more "complete" operating system and more of the "top apps". What this means to the general public is a fresh look at BlackBerry and no preconceived notions on what the operating system actually is. If they had made an aggressive push early on there would be a lot more people who are upset and would have sworn off BlackBerry for the foreseeable future. It's much easier to convince someone to give something new a try than to give something a try that they tried before and didn't like.

This is where rebranding will come in. They can't rename the company again(I think renaming from RIM to BlackBerry was a mistake, but it is said and done already and that argument is for another post) so they have to name the products. It can't just be the OS, it has to be the whole package. Drop BB10 entirely. Just say it's running QNX since that is really what is at the heart of BB10. It's no longer a BBOS device and that's what most people think(I think) when they think of BB10 without being introduced to it, just another iteration.

That leaves the devices. Drop the number from the devices because at this point they aren't making sense. Launch the devices under a single unifying name. Just as an example the next generation could be the BlackBerry Revolution. Then tack on a QT(QWERTY Touch), FT(Full Touch), or HT(Hybrid Slider). For example: BlackBerry Revolution QT 2014, the year to designate particular models.

This new scheme could relaunch BlackBerry devices. Then, once the new devices are out there, launch an aggressive marketing campaign to get the word out that BlackBerry is back and better than ever. Show people why they want a BlackBerry above all else. It's no longer just for the big executive or the President. It's for people like my wife who need reliable communication to keep up with what's happening with her herd of horses at work. It's for the family to keep up to date with each other and then family game time of Canasta, while one player Miracast to the TV and everyone play their hands on their phone(meaning no pass and play, they are all connected to each other while the central game play area is broadcast on the big screen). It's for a pet owner getting their pet's vet visit information at the tap of a pad on the reception desk, setting up future reminders and dosage information. It's now for everyone and BlackBerry needs to show people why that is.

With a new line of phones, especially with some of the potential QNX and BB10 already has realized by BlackBerry and developers alike, BlackBerry has a real shot at a great comeback. By the time they make the marketing blitz to normal consumers they would have already launched a phone for the enterprise to show them that BlackBerry is back and listening to them. Maybe by that point they would launch the second set of next gen phones and keep the older gen out there as a lower cost alternative?

I didn't take into account Foxconn. I'm not sure how that is going to play out so I will reserve judgment on that until we actually see the phones from them. I believe Foxconn will produce the lower end devices meant more for the average consumer and developing countries while BlackBerry will still continue to make the high end more expensive phones. We shall see how this goes.

I know it's much easier to talk about this stuff on a forum. What we all see as "it's plain as day" may very well be plain as day but be much harder to execute on. I know other manufacturer's could come in and add this stuff I talked about above. This is why BlackBerry needs to work quickly to bring themselves back. I believe they have a real shot and would love to see them succeed and bring real innovation to the table in the process!

[ubizmo]

Maybe they should go with BBXXX?

[Christian Brunette]

I would name it #BB Shockwave. Shock the nations and make wave for the new BB OS now compatible with Google Play, all we need to do now is convince them that a Google Play app can be downloaded and used as a portal for downloading google apps. Mind you I'll still use App world from BB FOR DEVICE DRIVEN BB shockwave software.. Hope you like my idea

[extisis]

I would name it #BB Shockwave. Shock the nations and make wave for the new BB OS now compatible with Google Play, all we need to do now is convince them that a Google Play app can be downloaded and used as a portal for downloading google apps. Mind you I'll still use App world from BB FOR DEVICE DRIVEN BB shockwave software.. Hope you like my idea

Make.. way?

Posted via CB10

[Joao Oliveira]

They should rebrand to BB69 and make some "semi-porn" adds.... It would be a sucess and everybody would know about the brand

[qwerty4ever]

i like it, but add it to BlackBerry. BlackBerry QNX. Much better than 10. i've always wondered, what will happen when they run out of release numbers for 10? After 10.9 then what? OS 11? So the brand will change it's name after a set of years?

This is what they should have done if they were going to go the letter-number route. Terminator model numbers! T-800, T-1000.. etc eh? any takers? lol

You do realize version numbering can increment above 9 on the righthand-side of the version designation, right?

Posted via the BlackBerry Q5 using CB10.