First they take away the wonderful KickStart name from their new clam-shell and call it a Pearl. Now it seems that RIM has decided against calling the long-touted touchscreen BlackBerry the Thunder. Instead, it looks like they have chosen another weather related name, the “Storm”. Its seems like the touchscreen BlackBerry will be shipping on Verizon as the Storm and on other carriers such as Rogers & Vodaphone will be calling it the Thunder. Yay! More confused users…
To be honest, I don’t mind this new name change near as much as I did with the Pearl/KickStart fiasco. However, “Thunder” has grown on me over the past few months. Such is life, I suppose. Let us know what you all think about this new name change.
In the long run, I don’t know how much these names really matter. RIM seems to have a problem sticking with calling devices by a name rather than a number. Perhaps it is the years of habits yet to be broken, but I know many people who refer to their Curves as 8300s and their Pearls as 8110s.
Perhaps RIM is hoping that this new device will catch the world by Storm-Sorry, bad joke, couldn’t help it.
via Engadget Mobile
DavidB Not Registered
Posted: August 29, 2008 at 10:00 AM EST
I’m of the opinion this is a FAR better marketing decision than calling the 8220 a “Pearl” would be. However, this I think we can “take to the bank” at this point, I’m not sold the “Pearl” name for the 8220 is official yet.
David Not Registered
Posted: August 29, 2008 at 10:06 AM EST
Personally, I think RIM’s naming issues are huge marketing mistakes. If they want to penetrate the individual consumer market, as opposed to just the corporate market, they desparately need to change their lack of attention to the importance of a device name. The iPod and iPhone are great examples of how a name can truly help drive recognition and acceptance of a consumer device. Curve… good. Pearl… good. KickStart… good. 8800 World Phone… bad. But what’s worse is to have a breakthrough device like the Thunder, but then have two completely different names for it. The BlackBerry Thunder on some networks, and the BlackBerry Storm on others. It’s a grave mistake. It haunted the Danger Hiptop, which is known as the Sidekick with T-Mobile and the Hiptop with SunCom.
RIM needs to designate the name (and a catchy one) and then that’s the name on every carrier. It’s the only way to drive device recognition successfully. Not model numbers, and certainly not multiple names. And I agree, the KickStart is a *much* better name for the new clamshell design than to call it another Pearl. My guess is they are doing it to help continue Pearl recognition so the older models will still sell.
DavidB Not Registered
Posted: August 29, 2008 at 11:14 AM EST from my BlackBerry 8830
Naming a device is so new to Rim (no 7xxx or earlier ever had a name), yeah, they have a lot to learn. And have made some dumb decisions so far.
That said, Nokia sells millions of phones worldwide, without naming them right?
Ben Not Registered
Posted: August 29, 2008 at 1:53 PM EST
Nokia uses clever marketing.
N73 Camera Phone
N95 Music Phone
E71 Business Phone
You get the idea
Luciano ES ( View Profile) Moderator - Posts: 448
Posted: August 29, 2008 at 2:40 PM EST
Maybe Storm is a better name. It will come out and “take the market by storm”. Better than running the risk of some competitor launching something else and “stealing RIM’s thunder”.
Brian Not Registered
Posted: August 29, 2008 at 10:03 PM EST
Personally I like thunder better but int he long run it does not really matter, I still want this handset.