WARNING: This post is not for the faint of heart or for RIM employees 🙂 read at your own peril… (evil laughing subsides)
More about the so-called Blackberry Owners’ Lounge. By now it’s very clear what that Lounge thing means: throw a red sofa here and there around the site, call the site an “Owners’ Lounge” to invoke the idea of basking in something “premium” or “exclusive”, and that’s it! No need to put in any real meat. Even after almost a year of existence there is still barely anything available from the Owners Lounge. They have been promising us a mobile version of the lounge for months with no avail!
Why is the Blackberry Owners’ Lounge advertising a limited 10-feed version of Freerange as “FREE software” (caps and all) as if it were a big deal and not in fact a limited edition that’s always been available elsewhere?
And why is it advertising the regular commercial 30-day trial of IM+ in the Owners Lounge Exclusives section of the site? What particular idea do they have of the meaning of the word “exclusive”?
And what’s the deal with FOX Business News For Lounge Members? It’s not even an application, it’s just the mobile version of a site. How can that be “exclusive”?
And 30-Day FREE TRIAL – wow, free trial!!! – of Garmin. Also in the Exclusives section. As if nobody else could have the great honor of using that trial.
I know I am a very bad man who’s going straight to hell, but I can’t help visiting that Owners Lounge site and seeing the following message being dropped on every passer-by: “People who buy Blackberries are obviously stupid and devoid of any judging capacity, so let’s treat them accordingly”. Way to convey Blackberry superiority to potential new customers! Where do these marketing people get their diplomas?
Click the links above or the large screenshots below if you want to see it with your own stupid Blackberry user’s eyes.
I think RIM could have gone one of two ways with their “Lounge”:
- Give us real treats from time to time. Come on. Four Web sites have teamed up to give away a completely free and full-featured version of Freerange. Why can’t RIM? Ronen arranged with Mobihand a 20% discount on all software purchased at the BerryReview store, valid for more than a month. Hey! He’s doing it again, 15% this time! Why can’t RIM?
- Give us nothing. That’s fine, we understand we live in a capitalist world. And they still can sell stuff on their “Lounge”. But don’t lie to us. How about this copy instead?
“Are you a brand new Blackberry owner? You probably have noticed that your Blackberry already has several applications that guarantee your permanent connection with the most important people in your life. But there is more! Discover many other exciting applications you can buy to make your Blackberry experience even better. We have several suggestions from our most valued partners.”
Wouldn’t that be a lot more honest? But apparently RIM came up with a third choice: give us nothing while trying (not too hard) to make it look as if we were getting something extra.
To be fair, at least the games are bona fide. They are indeed free and most of them are great. But we don’t need this Lounge scam for that. The games have been available from the actually exclusive Blackberry browser’s Home page for a long time.
If a company that has a net income of $412.5 million can’t hire better copywriters and sponsor real promotions that make that “Lounge” stuff ever be useful or even make sense, then maybe they should just close it. Who would miss it? Why??? It’s been around for months and served no purpose except cause us embarrassment. Leave the lying and deceiving to the carriers. You can’t compete with them in that.
What about you? Can you not make that instant connection between blatant lies and what they seem to make of our intelligence as Blackberry users?
Matt ( View Profile) - Posts: