RENEE MONTAGNE, HOST:
At our last word this morning is: BlackBerry bling.
As we reported yesterday, BlackBerry has unveiled a new smartphone it hopes will woo back the many customers it lost in the past few years. Among its strategies, the company appointed singer Alicia Keys as its global creative director. That's a fancy term for a really hip spokesperson.
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
But there's one glitch. In the last few days, Alicia Keys was found to be tweeting from an iPhone, one of BlackBerry's biggest rivals. Ms. Keys explained herself to BlackBerry's CEO at yesterday's launch party.
ALICIA KEYS: I was in a long-term relationship with BlackBerry and then I started to notice some new kind of hotter, attractive, sexier phones at the gym. And I kind of broke up with you for something that had a little more bling. But I always missed the way you organized my life. And now we're exclusively dating again and I'm very happy.
THORSTEN HEINS: Oh, so are we.
(LAUGHTER)
MONTAGNE: The question now is whether the phone buying public will also make BlackBerry happy when the its new product hits the U.S. market in March.
And that's the business news on MORNING EDITION, from NPR News. I'm Renee Montagne.
INSKEEP: And I'm Steve Inskeep.
(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "PUT IT IN A LOVE SONG")