Kim Kardashian West loves her Blackberry.
She loves it so much that she buys them whenever she can from eBay because, she told Re/code's Kara Swisher, she's "afraid they'll go extinct."
.@KimKardashian tells @karaswisher she is so addicted to BlackBerry that she buys old ones on eBay & fears they'll go extinct. #codemobile
— Walt Mossberg (@waltmossberg) October 27, 2014
Kardashian West uses her Blackberry for email and an iPhone for everything else.
For what it's worth, Blackberry is a $5.4 billion company with ~$2.5 billion in cash and short-term securities, so it's not going anywhere anytime soon. The handset business might be spun out one day, but Blackberrys will be sold for years to come.
She was speaking at Re/code's Code/Mobile conference this week, thanks to having a top-5-grossing game (Kim Kardashian: Hollywood) in the App Store.
If you think it's bizarre that Kardashian West is speaking at Re/code's conference, you should open up your mind a bit. Swisher explained it beforehand by saying:
Whatever you think of her and her much-chronicled family, they have used social media, especially mobile, very adeptly. In the age of instant communication by celebrities to their fan base, she is one of the most effective users of these tools.
... Consider the numbers alone: Kardashian West has more than 24 million followers on Twitter and has tweeted 18,000 times; she has posted 2,104 photos on Instagram (here’s an example of one she posted of her and her husband, Kanye West) and has almost 20 million followers there; and, on Facebook, she has 23 million fans.
Plus, she is an active participant in the medium, the rare celebrity who manages to use it effectively as a marketing and branding tool, as well as a way to stay visible and relevant. Her mobile feeds, however riveting or inane you find them, are lively and engaging.
