The wait is finally over. The new BlackBerry (BBRY) is here. Of course, you want one—what other smartphone would you buy? The only question is if you can afford it: The latest BlackBerry was developed in concert with Porsche and costs $2,127.
Spoiler alert: the device looks more like a BlackBerry than a Porsche. Consider it one of the strangest—and oddly timed—product releases of the year.
It’s not odd for a car company to slap its name on something that doesn’t have four wheels. The most powerful auto brands all have robust licensing units. Ferrari, for example, has plenty of options for those who aspire to the playboy lifestyle but can’t afford the actual vehicle. There are Ferrari driving gloves ($210), surfboards ($1,700) and a carbon fiber chess-sets ($2,050).
Porsche, meanwhile, is to cars what Apple is to tech gadgets, and so the auto maker has taken the licensing game a step further. In addition to the usual name-leasing deals, its Porsche Design unit in Austria actually engineers things that don’t run on wheels, including some really slick train cars and ski lifts.
From a marketing perspective, the trick in these so-called co-branded exercises is making sure the whole is greater than the sum of the parts so the association pays off for both companies. That ski lift better be really good if it says “Porsche” on it.
Aston Martin has this down to a science, forging limited-release products and car tie-ins with Jaeger-LeCoultre watches, John Lobb shoes, and Bang & Olufsen speakers. Jaguar also showed how it’s done last month. It announced plans to make six ultra-light replicas of its storied 1963 E-type sports car to be sold in concert with a tiny batch of Bremont. The watch, designed to echo the aesthetic of Jaguar’s instruments, compliments and elevates the car; and vice versa.
All of which makes Porsche’s BlackBerry tie-up so puzzling. The car company has never looked sharper. Its new small SUV, the Macan, is a big hit and its new hybrid supercar is being touted as the future of driving (at least that’s what the guys on Top Gear said). Meanwhile, the Porsche 911 is still considered the sports car against which all others are measured.
But nothing is measured against BlackBerry these days. The company’s smartphone market share is expected to drop below 1 percent this year. The brand doesn’t have enough luster to make its own products shine, let alone others.
So why is there another Porsche BlackBerry? The answer is quite simple: tradition and money, two things the German car company has always been keen on. Porsche has been slapping its name on BlackBerry handsets for 10 years now. The farther the brand falls, the more it’s probably willing to pay for the affiliation. And if nobody buys them, no one will notice.
