This morning the guy sat across from me was using a BlackBerry Passport. I don’t see them very often so I’ve gotten in to the habit of asking their owners whether they like the odd-looking handset. While some are slightly embarrassed by the attention they have all, without exception, gone on to tell me it is the best handset they’ve ever owned.

“It’s better than an iPhone”, I was told this morning. “Better than any of my friends’ Android devices” he continued. “But I’m a BlackBerry fanboy”. Not words I hear very often these days.

“But they don’t sell the Passport very well. They don’t tell people how their phones are better than iOS and Android handsets. If people knew what it did they might sell more. These days when people see I use a Passport it raises some eyebrows”

And there in lies the problem. Nobody takes the company seriously anymore. It’s a troubled company with more attempts at recovering its lost dominance that most people assume the company has failed. Nobody knows what the company stands for these days. Who its devices are for. Why anybody should care.

To have any chance of survival it needs to fix this. Failing to fix it will make everything else it does a complete waste of time. It doesn’t matter how many new handsets it launches; keyboard or no keyboard; BlackBerry OS or Android. BlackBerry needs people to know what it stands for and who its devices are designed for.

“If you’re thinking of a phone for business then you should definitely seriously consider it”.

I am. Despite my criticism of the company’s marketing and PR activities, I really am. There are more like me – but BlackBerry needs to give them a reason to choose Blackberry. It needs a think different campaign – and it needs it quickly.