It’s been all choppy seas on blackberry’s latest endeavors, and now the brand is about to lose their Keys. After a year-long partnership with Alicia Keys, the brand has announced that Alicia will officially step down on Jan. 30, exactly one year after the partnership was announced.
“We have enjoyed the opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented and passionate individual,” BlackBerry said in a statement, providing no further details into the end of their collaboration.
BlackBerry signed Alicia as an attempt at a relaunch of their BlackBerry 10 series, but the collaboration was off to a rocky start after Alicia tweeted about her new BlackBerry deal from an iPhone. The company’s sales continued to plummet despite her star power and the end result was ill-fated.
CNN Reports:
Keys also backed company initiatives including the “Keep Moving Project,” in which the singer invited fans to send photos of themselves to be used in one of her music videos. BlackBerry also highlighted Keys’ work with the BlackBerry Scholars Program, a scholarship for women studying science, technology, engineering and math.
But Keys made few public appearances beyond those initiatives, and the struggling BlackBerry got into even more trouble as the year wore on.
BlackBerry 10 phones sold poorly, and the company was forced to take a nearly $1 billion writedown on unsold devices in September. That same month, the company announced it would cut 4,500 jobs — or 40% of its workforce — and that it would seek a buyer to take it private. But in November BlackBerry abandoned its plans to sell the company and ousted CEO Thorsten Heins.
Damn, damn, damn. That may be the end of Alicia’s partnership, but we can’t help but wonder how much more we will be seeing of BlackBerry as a whole.
SOURCE: CNN
