BlackBerry: The Rise and Fall of a Mobile Tech Giant

At one point, BlackBerry sold more than 50 million handsets, making it the industry leader. The firm first produced pagers and handsets, but in the early 2000s, the first generation of its smartphone—which came equipped with the popular keyboard—took shape.

BlackBerry phones became ubiquitous very quickly. BlackBerry used to hold a 43% share of the US smartphone market and a 20% share worldwide. However, the business no longer produces smartphones. Additionally, it discontinued all support for its phones in January 2022, effectively rendering BlackBerrys outdated.

How did it all happen?

Early history: Research in Motion

Research in Motion was founded in 1984 by two engineering students from Canada, Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fragan.

Research in Motion was hired by Canadian telecom giant Rogers in 1989 to develop its Mobitex network, a messaging-focused system that gave Research in Motion an advantage as a pioneer in mobile messaging.

Jump forward?to 1996, the year the company produced its first two-way pager. It was innovative at the time since it could wirelessly communicate with other devices on its network and supported?email.

The business debuted its first cell phone in 2002. It enhanced that design over the ensuing years, progressively adding capabilities like Wi-Fi, a color display, and an integrated camera.

Blackberry found a way to make its phone a necessity for the powerful and affluent. And possessing it truly said something about your character. It represented status. That’s how the name “Crackberry” came to be.

People become practically obsessed with it and the constant feeling of connection. The Blackberry was obviously marketed to business professionals and had an easy-to-learn design and learning curve.

Black Berry Messenger (BBM)

They could reply to emails, access the internet, and do just about anything else that would typically require a computer to accomplish with a Blackberry. BlackBerry Messenger was yet another cherished feature.

BlackBerry’s popularity was also greatly aided by the BBM messaging service, since they recognized early on that consumers desired instantaneous communication. Their desire was to have limitless messaging between them. Additionally, you joined the extremely elite group of BlackBerry-only users by virtue of being able to BBM.

The business generated over $3 billion in revenue and over $631 million in net income by 2007. Thus, Blackberry was simply dominating the US market at that time. Also, the iPhone wasn’t yet viewed by the business as a serious threat.

Enter the iPhone

Customers had never seen anything like the iPhone before. When the iPhone debuted as a fully touchscreen device, the mobile sector saw a significant advancement in innovation. At that time, BlackBerry was still using physical keyboards.

However, despite signing BlackBerry’s death warrant, the iPhone did not instantly kill BlackBerry.

2008 saw the arrival of Research in Motion’s first touchscreen phone, the BlackBerry Storm, shortly after the company’s 2008 flip phone. The Storm’s poor performance and glitchy design earned it harsh criticism from reviewers, who referred to it as a major letdown.

However, sales of Blackberry phones persisted for a number of reasons. Up until 2011, AT&T was the only carrier offering the pricey iPhone, so US consumers had to choose between switching carriers or getting a different phone. To put it plainly, individuals were unwilling to part with their keyboards. So Blackberry was good for a time.

However, the business failed to anticipate how fast the smartphone market was evolving. Every year, the iPhone received an update, and other cellphones like the Motorola Droid started to appear on store shelves. It made an effort to stay up.

It released cutting-edge gadgets like the Torch and the Playbook tablet. However, people weren’t thrilled with the devices. The absence of an email app in the Playbook’s shipment rendered it ineffective for a consumer base that prioritizes business. The iPhone 4’s arrival in June 2010 marked BlackBerry’s demise.

Apple’s phone sales overtook BlackBerry’s shortly after, and they remained there this time. BlackBerry evolved slowly. The foundation of the company’s philosophy was creating a fantastic product that just worked and gradually improving upon it. In order to do this, they planned to gradually add minor additions rather than aim for significant overhauls that would surprise and excite users.

Many aspects that users found appealing were absent from the phones, such as excellent front and rear cameras. By the end of 2012, Research in Motion’s global market share had dropped from 20% in 2009 to less than 5%.

Research in Motion formally rebranded itself as BlackBerry in 2013. It ultimately produced its spec-competitive touchscreen phone that same year.

iPhone and Android’s dominance

However, it was already too late. People were now restricted to using Android or iPhone. Global sales of smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2016 exceeded 432 million units. However, just approximately 200,000 of those were BlackBerry smartphones, meaning that the company’s market share for smartphones was essentially 0%.

Eventually, TCL, a Chinese consumer electronics business, effectively acquired the BlackBerry phone brand in 2016. This ultimately caused the corporation to exit the smartphone market, which it had been in for 14 years since ?the first phone was released.

But in a way, the phones survived. Presenting the all-new BlackBerry Classic, which offers unprecedented power and control. TCL was to design and produce the hardware, and BlackBerry was to supply the software. However, the operating system on more modern BlackBerry phones is Android, not BlackBerry.

Users now have access to their much-loved app store, along with a ton of personalization choices. 2018 saw the release of the Key2, the most recent BlackBerry phone. It may also be the final one. Anticipated for availability in 2021, the BlackBerry 5G never materialized.

Additionally, the business declared in December 2021 that it will completely decommission its operating system, which meant that older BlackBerry phones could no longer be counted on to perform as intended. It was the last straw that would bring the BlackBerry boom to an end.

However, BlackBerry, as a corporation, still exists, specializing in cybersecurity software. These recognizable phones will always be important pieces in the history of smartphones, even in the event of their demise.

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Boney Maundu

Tech Contractor & Writer

Slim Bz TechSystems: Nairobi