RIM faces challenges marketing BB10 system
‘Sneak peak’ turns out to be a dud
OTTAWA — If there was one thing to take away from Research in Motion’s swanky event this week at the Château Laurier hotel in Ottawa, it’s that the “Road to BlackBerry 10” is long and bumpy.
After numerous delays in releasing its much touted new line of phones, RIM finally reached out to a core group of users — federal bureaucrats and politicians — offering a “sneak peek” at the “next generation mobile platform that will change everything.”
With the new phone expected to go on sale within the first three months of 2013, the event seemed like a smart move. Reach out to your most loyal user group and offer it a reward for continuing to stand behind you. Too bad RIM messed it up. On Thursday night, civil servants and politicos packed a room in the hope of getting a look at the upcoming device and its operating system.
Instead they got a brief demonstration of one of the company’s test versions of its new smartphone — the same test version making its way around other demos across North America for the better part of six months.
It wasn’t BB10. The phone they showed isn’t the one being released next year and the software on the phone used in the demo isn’t the software that will eventually make its way to consumers. Some of the basic functionality is there, but the phone they showed is the one they give to developers to make sure their applications will work.
The event wasn’t the promised “start of a new era.” Everyone’s seen it before.
RIM rolled out the red carpet for this event. Booze flowed, food was served and the invitation said “attendees will have a chance to win” a BB10 device.” New chief marketing officer Frank Boulben and other key executives were there.
Boulben told the crowd that the evening marked the first step down the “road to BlackBerry 10.” He said the company would be holding more such events to show its fans the new device, rather than telling them about it through advertisements. He was passionate, articulate and confident, stating the coming weeks and months will mark “the biggest technology turnaround in history.”
Then he made way for the regurgitated test model demonstration.
Vivek Bhardwaj, the head of RIM’s software portfolio, tried to explain the absence of the real BB10. He said the company had made the decision to hold off showing the new device or the final version of BB10 software “until closer to launch.” RIM doesn’t want to tip competitors to its secrets.
But earlier in the week, RIM announced it had released BB10 devices to cellular carriers around the world for testing. Bhardwaj confirmed these were the final production versions of BB10 and the same smartphones consumers will be buying.
There is no doubt that BB10, when it’s released, will be an industry-leading device, from a technological standpoint. But it’s marketing that will make or break it.
Too many more steps in the wrong direction and RIM will get burned.