Video: BlackBerry Serenades its Developers. Love it or hate it?

Relax, folks. It’s just a joke.If the timing of this year’s BlackBerry Jam developer conference has been, as one analyst recently suggested, curiously shifted to mitigate bad press from what is expected to be a brutal Q2 report this Thursday, it just might be working.

First, RIM’s Thorsten Heins grabbed headlines by telling attendees that the company’s subscriber base has actually grown to eighty-million. That tidbit is widely attributed as the reason RIM shares were up more than 5% today.

What did not move the stock today, we’re pretty sure, is a video that is getting almost as much attention as the subscriber announcement. The performance, led by RIM’s VP Developer Relations, Alec Saunders, is set to the tune of REO Speedwagon’s 80’s hit “Keep on Loving You”. It urges developers to have patience while RIM rolls out the new BlackBerry 10 platform and thanks them for their loyalty.

Some like the parody video. Most do not. On Twitter, Globe and Mail tech writer Omar El Akkad gasped: “All signs suggest this is a real BlackBerry marketing video, and not a cruel joke..”. It isn’t, said the company.

“Disastrously bad” said another user. “BlackBerry: Now More Embarrassing Than Your Dad” tweeted another.

Those approaching the video with such seriousness should be reminded of the time Steve Jobs dressed up as Franklin Roosevelt in this spoof for his sales team…

Anyway, we kinda like it. What do you think? Watch the video and vote in our poll…