Gossip

Publicity stunts, and how not to set one up ...

So RIM decided that the Blackberry was, after all, starting to sell in Europe. "You'll want to try one out," they said. "Sure" we said. "We'll take it to the Test Match at Lords! - and send email to people ... "

Well, the Test Match is our little weakness, the Boss and me, and the Blackberry is ideal for a cricket match because the display is visible in bright sunlight. He gave me the Blackberry, and he took his SPV.

You don't want to know how the match went, I bet ... but it's sort of part of the story that An Incident Of Note Occurred (bowler Jones got the wicket of the New Zealand captain, since you ask) - which would have made a great real-time email.

So I hauled out my Blackberry out and composed an email for another cricket fan. Live. From the headquarters of cricket.

Type type type. Edit. Press send ...

It didn't go.

So I thought: "I'll ring the product manager and see what's wrong." And the phone said: "This phone is not authorised for making phone calls."

Yup. Research In Motion forgot to pay the bill ...