BlackBerry is a line of wireless handheld devices (commonly called smartphones) and services designed and marketed by BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM).[1] The very first RIM device was the Inter@ctive Pager 900, a clamshell type device that allowed two way paging, announced on September 18, 1996.[2]
After the success of the 900 the Inter@ctive Pager 800 was created for
IBM who bought 10 Million dollars of them on February 4, 1998.[3]
The next device to be released was the Inter@ctive Pager 950 on August
26, 1998. The very first device to carry the BlackBerry name was the
BlackBerry 850, an email pager, released January 19, 1999. Although
identical looking to the 950, the 850 was the first device to integrate
email and the name Inter@ctive Pager was no longer used to brand the
device.
The most recent BlackBerry devices are the BlackBerry Passport, BlackBerry Classic, and BlackBerry Z30. The user interface varies by model; most had featured a physical QWERTY keyboard, while newer generations have relied on a multi-touch screen and virtual keyboard.
BlackBerry devices can record video, take photos, play music and also provide functions such as web-browsing, email messaging, instant messaging, and the multi-platform BlackBerry Messenger service.
It was one of the major smartphone vendors until 2012. The consumer
BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries worldwide on
over 500 mobile service operators using various mobile technologies.[4] As of September 2013, there were 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide.[5][6] That number has dropped steadily, down to 46 million in June 2014.
The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany.[8] The name BlackBerry was coined by the marketing company Lexicon Branding.
The name was chosen due to the resemblance of the keyboard's buttons to
that of the drupelets that compose the blackberry fruit.[9]
The original BlackBerry devices, the RIM 850 and 857, used the DataTAC network. In 2003, the more commonly known convergent smartphone BlackBerry was released, which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing, Web browsing and other wireless information services.[10]
BlackBerry gained marketshare in the mobile industry by concentrating
on email. BlackBerry began to offer email service on non-BlackBerry
devices, such as the Palm Treo, through the proprietary BlackBerry Connect software.
The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display while newer models installed color displays. All newer models have been optimized for "thumbing", the use of only the thumbs to type on a keyboard. The Storm 1 and Storm 2 include a SureType
keypad for typing. Originally, system navigation was achieved with the
use of a scroll wheel mounted on the right side of device models prior
to the 8700. The trackwheel was replaced by the trackball with the
introduction of the Pearl series which allowed 4-way scrolling. The
trackball was replaced by the optical trackpad with the introduction of
the Curve 8500 series. Models made to use iDEN networks such as Nextel and Mike also incorporate a push-to-talk (PTT) feature, similar to a two-way radio.
On January 30, 2013, BlackBerry announced the release of the Z10 and
Q10 smartphones. Both models consist of touch screens: the Z10 features
an all-touch design[11] and the Q10 combines a QWERTY keyboard with touchscreen features.[12]
During the second financial quarter of 2013, BlackBerry sold 6.8
million handsets but was lapsed by the sales of competitor Nokia's Lumia model for the first time.[13]
On August 12, 2013, BlackBerry announced the intention to sell the
company due to their increasingly unfavourable financial position and
competition in the mobile industry.[14] Largely due to lower than expected sales on the Z10,
BlackBerry announced on September 20, 2013 that 4,500 full- and
part-time positions (an estimated 40% of its operating staff) have been terminated and its product line has been reduced from six to four models.[15] On September 23, 2013, Fairfax Financial, which owns a 10% equity stake in BlackBerry, made an offer to acquire
BlackBerry for $4.7 billion (at $9.00 per share). Following the
announcement, BlackBerry announced an acceptance of the offer
provisionally but it would continue to seek other offers until November
4, 2013.[16]
On November 4, 2013, BlackBerry replaced Thorsten Heins with new interim CEO John S. Chen, the former CEO of Sybase.[17]
On November 8, the BlackBerry board rejected proposals from several
technology companies for various BlackBerry assets on grounds that a
break-up did not serve the interest of all stakeholders, which include
employees, customers and suppliers in addition to shareholders, said the
sources, who did not want to be identified as the discussions were
confidential.[18] On November 13, 2013, Chen released an open message: "We are committed to reclaiming our success."[19]
In early July 2014, the TechCrunch online publication
published an article titled "BlackBerry Is One Of The Hottest Stocks Of
2014, Seriously", following a 50 percent rise in the company's stock—an
increase that was greater than peer companies such as Apple and Google;
however, an analysis of BlackBerry's financial results showed that
neither revenue or profit margin were improved, but, instead, costs were
markedly reduced. During the same period, BlackBerry also introduced
the new Passport
handset—consisting of a 4.5 inches (11 cm) square screen with "Full
HD-class" (1,440 x 1,440) resolution and marketed to professional fields
such as healthcare and architecture—promoted its Messenger app and
released minor updates for the BB10 mobile operating system.[20][21]
On December 17, 2014, the BlackBerry Classic
was introduced, with a keyboard which many consumers preferred over the
touchscreen BlackBerry models (Z10 and Z30) introduced two years
earlier
