Less than a year after partnering with Blackberry to become the company’s global creative director, Alicia Keys and the global telecommunication and wireless corporation has parted ways.
2013 was a tumultuous year for Blackberry, who lost billions of dollars in its struggle to compete with other smartphone competitors like Google and Apple. The company fired several top executives, including CEO Thorsten Heins and their Blackberry Z10 was a complete failure.
With all this said, it’s unclear if Keys was fired or if she resigned from her position, but the company did offer up the below statement.
“We thank Alicia for her many contributions including providing creative direction for the BlackBerry Keep Moving Project which attracted more than 40 million visits, advocating for women in STEM and launching the BlackBerry Scholars Program. We have enjoyed the opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented and passionate individual.”
Executives from the company told Billboard through anonymity, “She got on a sinking ship.”
Outside of the company’s woes, Keys partnership with Blackberry also came with some controversy. The entertainer was an avid iPhone user before the deal, and a month after being hired by the company, she sent out a tweet from her iPhone. The tweet was later denounced as a hack.
Photo credit: Billboard/Mario Tama/Getty Images
So, you may have heard that Alicia Keys and BlackBerry have officially parted ways. According to a former executive at the company, Keys “got on a sinking ship” when she took on the role of Creative Director back in 2013.
Keys was brought on by BlackBerry with hopes that her celebrity status would help revive the struggling tech company’s brand. However, it seems that even her star power wasn’t enough to save BlackBerry from its downward spiral in the tech industry.
Let’s take a closer look at Keys’ role at BlackBerry and why the company has been struggling in recent years.
Alicia Keys’ Role as Creative Director at BlackBerry
You might be wondering what Alicia Keys actually did as Creative Director at BlackBerry, and it turns out her role was to help the struggling company revamp its image and products in a highly competitive market. She was tasked with overseeing the design and development of new devices, as well as promoting them to consumers through advertising campaigns and public appearances.
Despite her best efforts, however, BlackBerry continued to struggle against rivals such as Apple and Samsung. Many critics felt that Alicia Keys’ involvement with the company was more of a publicity stunt than anything else, and that she had little real influence on its direction or success.
Eventually, after just one year on the job, she parted ways with BlackBerry amid rumors of internal conflicts and disagreements over strategy.
Despite this setback, Alicia Keys has continued to thrive in her career as a musician and performer. Her work with BlackBerry may not have been successful in turning around the company’s fortunes, but it remains an interesting chapter in her life story nonetheless.
Whether or not she will take on future roles as a corporate spokesperson or executive remains to be seen – but for now, fans can continue to enjoy her music and talent without worrying about any conflicts of interest or competing priorities.
BlackBerry’s Struggles in the Tech Industry
It’s tough to keep up in the tech industry, and BlackBerry has struggled to stay afloat. Once a dominant player in the smartphone market, BlackBerry has been surpassed by companies like Apple and Samsung. Despite attempts at reinvention, including their partnership with Alicia Keys as Creative Director, BlackBerry has failed to regain its former status.
In recent years, BlackBerry’s struggles have been attributed to their inability to adapt quickly enough to changing consumer demands. While other companies were developing larger screens and sleeker designs, BlackBerry continued to produce phones with physical keyboards and smaller screens. Additionally, the company failed to embrace app development early on, which further hindered their ability to compete.
As a result of these missteps and more, sales for BlackBerry have plummeted over the past decade. In 2009 alone, they sold over 50 million devices; by 2016 that number had dropped significantly to just under 1 million.
The future of the company remains uncertain as they continue their efforts at restructuring and rebranding in order to remain relevant in today’s ever-changing tech landscape.
Conclusion
So, you’ve just read about Alicia Keys and BlackBerry parting ways. It’s sad news for both parties, but it’s not entirely surprising given BlackBerry’s struggles in the tech industry.
As their former executive put it, “she got on a sinking ship.”While Alicia Keys’ role as creative director at BlackBerry may have seemed promising at first, the company has faced intense competition from other tech giants like Apple and Samsung.
Despite their efforts to revamp their brand and products, BlackBerry has struggled to keep up with the constantly evolving tech landscape. It remains to be seen what the future holds for both Alicia Keys and BlackBerry, but one thing is for sure: they will always be remembered for their contributions to music and technology respectively.
Founder and Creator of Singersroom.com and IncredibleWork.com. Follow me on Instagram at @gary.gentles.
