Research in Motion announced Wednesday that the brand will now be known as BlackBerry as it gears up to launch a series of Blackberry 10.
After announcing that Research in Motion will now be named Blackberry, Chief Executive Thorsten Heins launched its first two phones under the BlackBerry 10 series. This comes as an attempt to regain its position in the smartphone market - a place the brand once dominated.
"BlackBerry is how we're known pretty much everywhere across the world other than North America, so we have an iconic global brand and when you have such a powerful brand, you want to make it central," said Frank Boulben, BlackBerry's chief marketing officer, in an interview.
The launch of these two mobiles - Q10 and Z10 was initially scheduled for early 2012 which was later pushed back to late 2012. A few months into the last quarter of the year, the company pushed back the launch date to the start of 2013.
"This change from Research In Motion to BlackBerry comes at a defining moment in our company's history," said Thorsten Heins, president and CEO. "RIM created the first BlackBerry smartphone and changed the way millions of people around the world stay connected. We have used that same ingenuity and innovation to redefine mobile computing with BlackBerry 10. As we launch BlackBerry 10 around the world, now is the right time to adopt the iconic BlackBerry name."
The newly launched devices will decide the fate of the company as its aging line of products has failed to compete with products like Apple's iPhones and Samsung's S series devices.
"Previously we had Research In Motion, BlackBerry, Bold, Curve, Torch, PlayBook - and that dilutes the BlackBerry brand, which is a fantastic asset," Boulben said. "Moving to a branded house model allows us to focus our marketing on one name only."
