Thursday, October 9, 2008

BlackBerry Ironic

Given the downturn in the economy, Research In Motion is planning to release a product for those who cannot afford any of its expensive BlackBerry smartphones. Apparently, they expect this market to be quite profitable in the coming years.

The device has been given the code name "Ironic" around RIM, but its sure to adopt a one syllable name once officially released. The names of this new device are already being talked about around the intraweb and they include the "Pen" or the "Pad".

I'm a big fan of "the Pad" myself. I doubt using the name "the Pen" would be very marketable, and consumers might be a little confused about what they are actually buying (which happens to be a "pen" and a "pad").

Through a secret inside contact at Research In Motion, we'll call him "Canned", I managed to gather some pictures of the breakthrough device:


The photos I have are very fuzzy and I apologize. I'm sure clearer pictures will appear all over the intraweb as rumours start flying around about this device.

It appears to be made with a leather casing, which is sure to appeal to all of the soon to be unemployed stock brokers who will be grasping to touch anything of any value again. Smooth move RIM.

Also, notice the "Ironic" is branded BlackBerry on the outside. This will give those who cannot afford to use their beautiful BlackBerry smartphones the illusion that they still are. Marketing genious.



Now we see the Ironic in full use. It is a flip device, which makes up 70% of the cell phone market in the United States. If they can break into this market, RIM is sure to make a lot of money. 

As most flip phones have issues with hinges getting warn and eventually breaking, I'm sure RIM is testing this device out thoroughly. RIM has a reputation of never releasing a product until it meets the highest of quality standards and I'm sure the Ironic will be no different.

Also notice in this photograph that the Ironic makes use of some type of stylus. This technology is typically a staple of Palm and I'm surprised to see RIM use it. However, the Canadian company appears to be appealing to a market segment that has gone completely broke, so to keep the price of the device down its understandable they made the decision to integrate an obsolete technology. 



I'm not sure what I think of the Ironic yet. It will be interesting to get my hands on one and give it a full review.

One thing is clear though, with RIM announcing recently the release of their first touch screen device, the Storm, and now leaks of this new device, the Ironic, it definitly clear that RIM is working hard to keep with the times.

Note: This is the first parody I have ever written. And also, this is a parody.

2 comments:

Douglas Porter said...

Don't worry, Josh. The growing global elite will still be able to afford blackberries.

Douglas Porter said...

You know, the rich and those contracting companies in Mexico and China which compete to bid down the price of labour in their respective countries.