If you’ve ever read a RIM or RIM partner press release, you will notice that RIM legal as well as RIM marketing insist that the word “BlackBerry” is always written as “BlackBerry® smartphones” or “BlackBerry® smartphone device.” The reason for this, is that RIM branding wants to separate itself from the rest of the mobile phone market. Although I’m not a big fan of the registered trademark logo, or writing the stock symbol, there are still some branding issues I think are important.
Here are my top 3 tips when using the BlackBerry brand:
1. It’s a mobile computer not a fruit.
Many journalists, make the mistake of writing the plural form of BlackBerry as “BlackBerries.” The plural form of BlackBerry is ‘BlackBerry devices’ or ‘BlackBerry smartphones.’
2. There are 2 capital letters.
Again, the BlackBerry is not a fruit which only takes a capital at the beginning of a sentence. BlackBerry is a brand name with 2 capital letters.
3. A BlackBerry device is not a mobile phone.
A RAZR is a mobile phone. Anything made by Sony Ericsson is a mobile phone. A BlackBerry is not a mobile phone. The BlackBerry stands alone as a powerful device for enterprise and prosumers. If a group of devices are to be mentioned in a sentence, BlackBerry must stand alone. For example, “please submit your pagers, mobile phones, BlackBerry devices and laptops.”
Although this may all seem petty, it’s about time that the Internet knows how to properly refer to the device.
