Blackberry CEO Jon Chen announced that it will discontinue manufacture of the device that brought the company–then Research in Motion, or RIM–to fame and fortune.
While Chen resuscitated the device when he arrived in 2013, today’s announcement underscores how–and how much–the Blackberry brand is evolving to stay competitive in a rapidly changing marketplace.
While we might all agree that brands need to change with the times, there’s something to be said for the symbolism of a flagship product. Famously, when Coke tried to change its namesake to “New Coke” consumers reacted badly, forcing the company to bring back the original product as “Coke Classic,” a naming convention that brings us back to Blackberry.
Do you agree with CEO Chen’s decision to delist the Blackberry Classic? Or would you have kept it in limited production as a symbol of the company’s pioneering innovations?
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