RIM launched BB10 today (the Z10 and Q10 models) and perhaps the most surprising element was that they named Alicia Keys as their new Creative Director.
According to the press release...
In her new role, Keys will work closely with app developers, content creators, retailers, carriers and the entertainment community to further shape and enhance the BlackBerry 10 platform, and inspire creative use through its remarkable capabilities and functionality. From music to books, to film, to apps, Keys will lead the charge of enhancing entertainment consumption and distribution, through the power of BlackBerry 10.
My view on this announcement is that it may be one of the dumbest, worst, silliest, ridiculous, idiotic, absurd, moronic, irresponsible, unrealistic moves in corporate history.
SINGERS SING! They are NOT marketing gurus.
SINGERS SING! They have no clue how the day-in and day-out workings of a corporation unfold.
SINGERS SING! They have no experience in managing corporate teams, developing strategic corporate plans, managing carrier relations or even managing stuff as simple as budgets.
That is why celebrities are hired to endorse a product, not actually manage it.
In addition, this DESTROYS morale within a company. It says the hard work you've put in so far means NOTHING when a 'celeb' (with no marketing experience and who probably doesn't know the first thing about the telecom business) can be parachuted in as your boss.
I have no clue what RIM was thinking with this. It's almost as if they were watching an episode of the Celebrity Apprentice and thought 'Hey, why don't we try something like that. Let's not just get a celeb to endorse the product, let's actually hire them to work for us on a daily basis."
Anyway, all this move tells me is that the folks at RIM are not in the least bit serious about rebuilding the company. They are reaching into the 'over hyped' bag and hiring celebs, not for endorsements, but as actual employees, in the hopes of making headlines.
I'm calling it right here and right now.... RIM IS DEAD.
When you see this kind of decision making taking place, you know that there is no sane minds at the meetings when discussions are taking place. People are tossing out idiotic ideas and everyone is agreeing with them. That's when you know a company is dead and that it's just going to take time for the body temp to officially go completely cold.
As for the Z10 introduction, you can watch a review of it from WSJ:
My initial impressions are that it's 'ok' but nothing ground breaking. Would I buy a Z10? Unfortunately I wouldn't. Not unless it has some amazing features that beat the competitors - like battery life or something. But as far as I can tell it doesn't.
That said, it's still a little early to tell what the general public will think of the new phone. Walt's review above gives it a tepid thumbs up, but he sure doesn't seem blown away by it.
As of writing this RIM's share price is down six per cent. Most of that is likely just traders 'selling the news' and we shouldn't read to much in to it.
That said, recruiting a celeb to actually become a director in the company is about the dumbest thing I've ever seen a company do (unless you're a movie company hiring someone who was an actor, or a recording studio hiring someone who was a rock star, I can understand those types of hires).
I'd love to know what Alicia's salary is. I'm sure employees at RIM will be asking the same question... we had to fire thousands of people and then we turn around and spend millions (I'm assuming) hiring a celebrity to be our creative director?
I really hate saying this because as a Canadian I hope nothing but the best for RIM, but after today I predict that this company is committed to crashing and burning in a spectacular display of bad decision making.
One can only hope that their engineers are able to build a product so good that it saves the company irrespective of all the other mistakes they are making. Although at this late stage I highly doubt that will be the case.
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