Are a new operating system, a pair of handsets on which to run it and a name change enough to restore Research In Motion, now “BlackBerry,” to its former glory. That’s an open question after the Wednesday event at which the company attempted to recast itself as a player in the market it helped pioneer.
Certainly, Wall Street wasn’t impressed. BlackBerry’s shares, which had more than doubled over the past three months after a precipitous decline, tanked following the event. Shares closed down 12 percent at $13.78. Profit-taking? Surely there was some of that. But investor anxiety over the daunting task ahead of the company was obviously at work here as well. As BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins himself said, “Today is not the finish line. It’s the starting line.”