Last week, word had it that BlackBerry may be tapping Drake to help push the BlackBerry Classic – a new phone, to be launched in November.
Its no secret that the one-time best smartphone has lost it’s edge to the iPhone. In an effort to not lose its footing, it jumped feet first into the corporate arena generating its revenue primarily from the enterprise market.
However, ears perked back when the rumor began to swirl that perhaps the company was looking to Drake to get the phone back into mainstream again.
The company had tried something like this before. It brought Alicia Keys on board as “global creative director” in 2013 but parted ways with the singer at the top of the year. The partnership also suffered from some publicity failures, such as Alicia was photographed tweeting from an iPhone.
With that in mind, we thought we’d ask. Could Drake perhaps bring back the once smartphone giant?
Well it seems that it would be an overwhelming NO.
I expected closer results, but when we surveyed 94 people, 93% revealed that despite his success, Drake could not persuade them to purchase the new Blackberry. Considering first quarter results, this should not come as a strong surprise.
For the first quarter of the year, the company generated $23 million in net income. Revenue, however, was a fraction of what it was a year earlier: The company brought in $966 million in the quarter, down from $3.07 billion the same time a year earlier.
For BB, perhaps innovation is required. With all the bells and whistles of the iPhone, looks like the target audience is far too sophisticated to be fooled by solely a celebrity endorsement.
UPDATE: Since the survey was performed the company has confirmed that it is not
in talks with the Toronto rapper.
“We can confirm that we are not in conversations with Drake,” a spokesperson told MobileSyrup blog.
Sounds smart.
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