"She got on a sinking ship," a source told Billboard of Alicia Keys' yearlong partnership with Blackberry that will end this month. Keys was signed in January of last year as Blackberry's "global creative director" in a last ditch bid to compete with more popular smart phones from Apple, Samsung, and the like. Billions of dollars in losses later, Blackberry will shift its focus towards business and the government.

"BlackBerry and Alicia Keys have completed our year-long collaboration," the company said in a statement Thursday. "We thank Alicia for her many contributions including providing creative direction for the BlackBerry Keep Moving Project which attracted more than 40 million visits, advocating for women in STEM and launching the BlackBerry Scholars Program. We have enjoyed the opportunity to work with such an incredibly talented and passionate individual."

By most accounts, Keys seemed to have lived up to her half of the deal, though perhaps not to the degree necessary for a celebrity-company partnership to truly thrive, as Billboard pointed out.

Blackberry sponsored her Set the World on Fire Tour, which also advertised the Keep Moving Project, originally intended as a collaboration of artistic work from Keys, Director Robert Rodriguez ("Sin City" and "Spy Kids"), Author/Filmmaker Neil Gamon ("Beowolf" and "Coraline"), and fan submissions to promote the release of the Blackberry 10 (which was delayed significantly). That project was eventually scrapped, at which point Keys focused on awarding scholarships to women in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math). Ten scholarships were supposed to total $2 million, but that number was reduced in light of Blackberry's financial woes, according to Billboard.

Keys probably fared better than similar celebrity appointments ruined either by a less than committed star or a less than committed company, such as Lady Gaga with Polaroid, Jermaine Dupri with 3 Vodka, and more, according to Billboard. Given a better situation, perhaps Keys could have experienced the success Will.i.am has had in his partnerships with Coca Cola, Intel, and Eko-cycle.

The Wall Street Journal summarized Blackberry's fall by the titles of Keys' songs here.