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RIM Kicks 'KickStart' Name To The Curb

You know that clamshell BlackBerry that everyone on the Internet is fawning over, the KickStart? Well, turns out RIM didn't care for the name too much, and has re-christened the device as the Pearl 8220.

I didn't think there was anything wrong with the name KickStart. Even though it bordered a little close to other phone names, such as Sidekick, or Flipshot, it still had its own appeal. To me, kickstart was what The Fonz did to get his motorcycle going, and the notion plays well into the function of a smartphone. We could question all day long why RIM decided to bag the name.

Instead, let's try to figure out why it chose "Pearl 8220". RIM, you already have a phone named the Pearl. In fact, you have the original Pearl (the 8100) and the Pearl 2 (the 8110, 8120, 8130). The Pearl was originally named for the trackball that serves as the phone's main navigational tool. Now that the Curve, Bold, and 8800 Series BlackBerrys use the same thing, it is less specific to the actual Pearl itself.

The 8220 may have some similarities to the Pearl, but giving a bar-style phone and a clamshell phone the same name just doesn't make sense. (I would argue that LG made a similar boo-boo. The Chocolate 3 is a clamshell, where the Chocolates 1 and 2 were sliders). Also, the Pearl will be two years old in another month or so. Isn't time to bring something fresh to the lineup?

If you follow this line of thinking -- that RIM needs to offer something new -- then KickStart seems more appropriate.

But it's not my phone, it's RIM's, and it can name the phone whatever it wants.

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