BlackBerry made Alicia Keys their Global Creative Director in January of 2013. The partnership was announced at an announcement event alongside the BlackBerry 10 OS. Alicia Keys was going to help the company “inspire the future” and push the new BlackBerry brand to the next level. No one on the outside could really figure out what exactly Keys was doing at the company, but BlackBerry needed all the help it could get. After a year of directing the global creation of BlackBerry, however, the two have already decided to part ways.
The move comes shortly after the mobile company replaced its CEO. Now in the process of reassessing its assets, they have apparently decided that Keys was one that they didn’t want to hang on to. Either that or Keys herself has decided to cut ties with the flailing giant. Either way, the relationship is over.
Alicia Keys had been an outspoken iPhone fan before signing on as a director at BlackBerry. Shortly after taking the position, she was actually caught tweeting from her iPhone. She attempted to smooth things over by claiming that her Twitter account had been hacked. She just didn’t want to make the switch to BlackBerry. She had developed an iOS app that let users add her image into their photos. She also had an avid Instagram following that she gave up when making the switch because the OS didn’t have an Instagram app at the time. All in all, the relationship between Keys and the Canadian mobile company has been rocky at best.
With a new CEO at the helm and personnel changes happening, BlackBerry is a company in transition. The company delayed the launch of its BlackBerry 10 OS and supporting devices for more than a year and finally released them in 2013. It was too little, too late for them. Consumers are invested in the Android and iOS platforms now, and BlackBerry is struggling. No more details were released about Keys leaving the company, and no more details were provided about what she did in her time there. Whatever it was, it obviously wasn’t enough to turn things around. Keys can’t really be blamed, though. The ship was already sinking when she came on board.