BlackBerry: New Name, OS, and Devices Not Enough To Keep it Fresh

Despite a new name, a revamped operating system, and some genuine attempts at innovation this year, BlackBerry has reached the end of its road and is being bought out.

Back in January of this year, BlackBerry, as a company, did not exist. Instead, the Canadian business smartphone company was still called Research in Motion or "RIM" for short. But that changed at RIM's big event in New York City at the end of that month, when CEO Thorsten Heins announced that the company was changing its name to the more recognizable BlackBerry moniker it gave its devices, stating "We are BlackBerry all over the world."

At that event - seen by many onlookers as a sink-or-swim re-launch for RIM, which had been struggling in the smartphone market ever since the rise of the iPhone and Android devices - BlackBerry Ltd. announced a new operating system and two new phones that the newly-renamed company hoped would reestablish it as a truly competitive, global brand.

With the launch of a new full-slate touchscreen BlackBerry Z10, BlackBerry Ltd. was hoping to compete with the top smartphones of the year. With a full-sized 4.2-inch touchscreen, plenty of storage, competitive processor, decent camera and modern mobile OS features in the BB10 operating system, such as video conferencing and a proprietary predictive text input system, the BlackBerry Z10 looked like what a flagship smartphone should be. (Its cousin, the Q10, offered many of those features, including a touchscreen, along with the traditional RIM physical qwerty keyboard.)

But, introduced so early in the year, the BlackBerry Z10 didn't sell like a flagship, and was quickly overshadowed by the fast-selling Samsung Galaxy S4, the critically-acclaimed HTC One, and, of course, iPhones and rumors of iPhones. And some critics were skeptical that this year's re-launch, even if commercially successful, would change BlackBerry's fate in the age of BYOD (bring your own device), where employees can chose what smartphones they want to use at work.

But this isn't the end times for BlackBerry. It's being bought out, mainly by a friendly investor - BlackBerry's largest shareholder, according to CNN Money, Fairfax Financial. The company already owned a 10 percent stake in BlackBerry, and the CEO of the Canadian insurance company commented that the buy-out "will open an exciting new chapter for BlackBerry" that will "deliver immediate value to shareholders."

BlackBerry doesn't have to take the deal yet, which is an offer to buy the company at about $9 per share, which is rather generous compared to the $8.24 per share prior to the announcement on Monday. The struggling smartphone maker has until November 4 to find a superior offer.

The news doesn't come as a big shock, as BlackBerry has had a special committee to look for new alternatives for about a month, after the company announced a $1 billion loss, plans to lay off employees, and a possible spin-off subsidiary of the one popular, successful venture of BlackBerry - BlackBerry Messenger.

BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) hasn't been without its own bumps in the road, though, as a planned launch this weekend of BBM apps for Android and iOS was called off temporarily, after an unofficial version of the messaging service hit Android devices earlier than expected.