RIM re-brands to BlackBerry; BB smartphone Z10 opens to solid reviews

New York, NY, United States (4E) – Research In Motion (RIM) has announced that it will be re-branded as BlackBerry. The brand aims to be “simple and elegant.” The change of name was announced during the unveiling of the new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone and BlackBerry 10 mobile OS in eight cities: Jakarta, Johannesburg, Delhi, London, Toronto, New York, Paris and Dubai.

“We have reinvented the company, and we want to represent this in our brand. One brand. One promise. Our customers use a BlackBerry, our employees work for BlackBerry, and our shareholders are owners of BlackBerry,” BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins said.

Along with the name change is the change of its stock symbol to BBRY under the NASDAQ and BB under the TSX. RIM was known as company’s name since 1984 but publicly it was always called BlackBerry.

BlackBerry’s new flagship smartphone, the Z10, has opened to solid reviews. It features a clean and sleek design and its touchscreen keyboard is easy-to-use and responsive. The new BlackBerry 10 OS also has the potential to compete against the likes of Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS in the future.

“We have a fantastic brand. BlackBerry. And we are known as such pretty much all over the world except in North America. So we want to take full advantage of that global iconic brand.” BlackBerry Frank Boulben added.

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