Big Win for RIM, well sort of.

It was announced today, Obama will keep his BlackBerry! Now dubbed the "BarackBerry." Big win for RIM, right? Well the real answer is yes and no.

Obama and his BlackBerry has been one of the most closely watched celebrity endorsements of all time. The news that he is keeping the device made the front page of the Money section in The USA Today.

But the actual device Obama is likely to use may not be a BlackBerry made my RIM. Speculations is that it will be a Sectera by General Dynamics which is actually a repurposed Palm Treo loaded with super security and encryption software.

So the question is, does it matter? Absolutely not.

What matters is that BlackBerry owns the category of wireless email. What matters is the Obama loves his "BlackBerry" and wanted to keep his "BlackBerry."

It is like ordering a coke in a restaurant. The waitress says they have Pepsi, you say OK. You may drink the Pepsi but Coke is the winner in the mind, the own the category.

BlackBerry owns the category of smart phones with keyboards. When you are first in a new category with a brilliant name you become synonymous with that category. Like Coca-Cola, Kleenex, Xerox, Red Bull, RollerBlade, etc.

Take Palm, they were the first digital organizer (or PDA) in the mind. But the name was weak. It was too generic. They should have used Palm as the category name and given the device a unique name. Actually it was the Palm Pilot originally but they lost the Pilot name in a lawsuit.

In smart phones, we have a classic battle brewing. Two brands each with opposite and distinct positions. iPhone owns cool. BlackBerry owns efficiency. And BlackBerry is now the choice President Obama. A President is trying to be seen as in touch and getting things done.

If BlackBerry plays this right, they could position iPhone users as slackers. iPhone users as kids listening to music and watching videos all day long. Not the message many executives want to send. Phones to save time vs. phones to kill time.

I'm working hard and I'm keeping my BarackBerry.

Comments

[Craig Johnson]

It drives me crazy how the new Blackberry Storm ads try to focus on how you can see photos, watch videos, and listen to music on the Storm. Let that go! If I wanna do those things I'm for sure gonna get an iPhone. Stick with Blackberry being the businessman's phone and give up the fun.

[Laura Ries]

The Storm was exactly the wrong thing for BlackBerry to do. You don't fight the enemy by copying them.

Look what happened to Dell when they went after the consumer market, total disaster.

The BlackBerry should stick to the many advantages of not having a touch screen especially for business users and email.

Sure a BlackBerry is NOT for everybody. But that is the essence of branding. The way to build a brand is by not appealing to everybody but by appealing to somebody. For BlackBerry it is business people.

[Leexan Hong]

I just received an e-mail from Blackberry encouraging me to set up a fitness plan using my Blackberry:

http://www.blackberry.com/newsletters/connection/owners_lounge/i109/building_wellness.shtml?CPID=NLC-36&cp=NLC-36&MIG=497E42F23E56070EE10000000A659D27

Curious to see what your thoughts are? We had a discussion at my office and came to the conclusion that this might be more of a "reaction" to the iPhone and could ultimately be hurting their "businessman's" phone brand. We felt that RIM should be focusing on making the Blackberry more "serious" and further differentiate it from the iPhone rather than promoting it to keep track of your workouts on it.

[B3N]

I couldn't imagine having a Blackberry. Oh wait, I did have one—for two weeks. Then I returned it, switched phone companies, and bought an iPhone. Crackberry phones are garbage. The infuriating little scroll wheel makes life a struggle. And the little, tiny keys? I don't have the patience or nails for a Crackberry. Dealing with the fake internet (those watered down text pages) sucks.

Many of the Crackberry addicted execs would gladly trade in their tragically unhip mobile bricks for a sleek, stylish iPhone. As with most innovations, the adaptation period takes time. IT departments are to blame in this case!

So I digress. Apple is rapidly picking off a lion's share of the U.S. smartphone market. What happens next is up to Apple, not R.I.M. The ill-fated Storm was a day late and a dollar short. By releasing this product, R.I.M. was no longer the brand Apple imitated, it was the other way around. Poor R.I.M. They got stomped on by the cool kid.

How much longer will Apple be the cool kid, though? What with Steve Jobs' health and pulling out of Macworld 2010...

Thanks for the great posts, Laura! :)

[ds]

Good article. Only problem for Blackberry is a buggy reputation for the Storm.

[Adrianne Machina]

I can't imagine living a day with out my BlackBerry. I think many business owners and execs would agree with me. I agree with your analysis that the "BarackBerry" is a coup for RIM against the iPhone - even if he uses a Treo. We all know he WOULD use a BlackBerry if the secret service allowed it, right?

I'm glad that we're not making our President use morse code, smoke signals and ink-dipped pens just to uphold tradition. We need a get-things-done president, and I'm THRILLED he gets his Blackberry. Now if we can just get him back on Twitter?