Wow. This is kind of messed up. Jeopardy, the famous game show that has all the answers and who in Alex Trebek undoubtedly has the smartest game show host in the world, somehow messed up royally last night on a question that to most of us CrackBerry users out there should seem pretty dang simple. Our own Adam Zeis was watching it live and nearly spit his drink on the floor as it unfolded....
Under a category of "Non-Edible Fruit" came the question you can watch in the video above. Luckily, both the contestant and Jeopardy got the question wrong, which means she got the answer right, but seriously.... it's RESEARCH IN MOTION that makes BlackBerry Smartphones, not BlackBerry! BlackBerry is a brand. This little mishap raises a great point though, which is that I'm guessing most people DO think that BlackBerry is the company that makes BlackBerry Smartphones or at least did think that when they first learned about BlackBerry and/or bought their first BlackBerry Smartphone. RIM really has done very little that I have ever noticed to build awareness of their corporate brand, instead putting their efforts into that of the BlackBerry name. Which makes sense I guess... BlackBerry is a much better name than RIM.
Since these days RIM pretty much brands every single product they make under the BlackBerry name (there were exceptions to this in RIM's pre-BlackBerry days) it almost makes more sense and would be less confusing to the world if RIM just went out and changed their corporate name to BlackBerry. Why fight what everybody else seems to get wrong. What's even more disturbing here is that Alex Trebek was born in Sudbury, Ontario, which is just a few hours away from RIM's headquarters in Waterloo! If Jeopardy and Alex Trebek let something like that slip through the cracks, then I'm not sure what to think. What do you think? RIM or BlackBerry? That is the question!
