If you’re not in Show Biz, you’re not in Biz.  I don’t know who said that, but there does seem to be kind of logic in it. At least, it seems to be the case that corporations have gone the glitzo-schmitzo  route when launching new products.  The CEO is on stage, casually dressed, in the style made mandatory by the late Apple Chairman. Notice I said stage. It’s a show, with an audience, cast, production values ( lights, music, smoke from dry ice packs for all I know). The star is not the CEO, who is more like the Stage Manager in Our Town. The star is the Wonderful Gadget, or WG for short. There is a script, the proceedings have been rehearsed, more than once probably. Somebody recounts the story of the WG’s coming into existence. Somebody else describes the WG’s marvelous feaures, etc, etc, etc.  All that is going on today as the new BlackBerry WG was unveiled at a lollapallooza in downtown New York. Simultaneous events were staged in Dubai, Toronto and a couple of other places. so that BlackBerrians world wide could testify to their excitement. All id all up, and if it ain’t Show Biz, then what is it? The guy from MIT was live-blogging the proceedings and you can review comments at the link. It seems that there are some interesting features to the new device. None of the observations or any of the gush can be taken as a ‘review’. That won’t happen for a little while, but, the great interest surrounding the new BB and the ‘back-from-the-grave’ character of RIM’s comeback will certainly mean that reviewers get busy and start producing analyses of how the BB10 works, with strengths and weaknesses.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/510521/live-updates-from-rims-blackberry-10-launch-event/

From Ars Technica, sidebars on the left

http://arstechnica.com/