There are those who make cruel jokes about BlackBerrys. They suggest that people who still use them are the sorts that listen to CDs.
For myself, the only people I still see with BlackBerrys in hand are those who haven't stopped focusing on climbing the corporate ladder since 2004 -- and are still in middle management positions.
However, Samsung has decided that those corporate BlackBerrys are worthy of as much mockery as, well, the iPhone.
You might remember the sheer glee with which Korea's fine phone manufacturer has attacked the cult of Apple over the last 12 months. Well, in a new ad released last weekend, it smears BlackBerry with more insolence than a slightly downtrodden brand might warrant.
We're at a gaming company. It is truly cool. The new game is Unicorn Apocalypse. Of course it is. And yet some people here still use BlackBerrys. There was a corporate policy, you see.
Cool companies have corporate policies? I thought the whole point of being a cool company was not to have corporate policies. Other than compulsory marijuana at 4:20 every day.
The 18-year-old co-CEO announces that now everyone will be able to choose whatever smartphone they want. Some might conjecture this has been inspired by Yahoo's Marissa Mayer, who decided that BlackBerrysjust shouldn't be seen around a dynamic organization like hers.This Samsung ad suggests that those who use BlackBerrys are the few, demented souls who still wear a jacket to work or those who have two phones-- one for pleasure and the other a BlackBerry. Those of a sensitive spirit may feel that the target here is a little too easy, a little too doddery to deserve any more brickbats.
But Samsung wants to march into the enterprise market and declare itself like the perfect husband -- secure and sexy.
I see Canada withdrawing its diplomats from South Korea before the day is out.