BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

company

Research In Motion BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...

(RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device launched in 1999 in North America, running on the

Mobitex Mobitex is an OSI based open standard, national public access wireless packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It was developed in ...

network (later also

DataTAC DataTAC is a wireless data network technology originally developed by Mobile Data International which was later acquired by Motorola, who jointly developed it with IBM and deployed in the United States as ARDIS (Advanced Radio Data Information Servi ...

) and became very popular because of its "always on" state and ability to send and receive

email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...

messages wirelessly. The BlackBerry pioneered

push notifications Push technology, also known as server Push, refers to a communication method, where the communication is initiated by a server rather than a client. This approach is different from the "pull" method where the communication is initiated by a client ...

and popularized the practise of "

thumb The thumb is the first digit of the hand, next to the index finger. When a person is standing in the medical anatomical position (where the palm is facing to the front), the thumb is the outermost digit. The Medical Latin English noun for thumb ...

typing" using its

QWERTY keyboard QWERTY ( ) is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top letter row of the keyboard: . The QWERTY design is based on a layout included in the Sholes and Glidden typewriter ...

, something that would become a trademark feature of the line. In its early years, the BlackBerry proved to be a major advantage over the (typically) one-way communication

pagers A pager, also known as a beeper or bleeper, is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknow ...

and it also removed the need for users to tether to

personal computers A personal computer, commonly referred to as PC or computer, is a computer designed for individual use. It is typically used for tasks such as Word processor, word processing, web browser, internet browsing, email, multimedia playback, and PC ...

. It became especially used in the corporate world in the US and Canada. RIM debuted the BlackBerry in Europe in September 2001, but it had less appeal there where

text messaging Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile phones, tablet computers, smartwatches, desktops/laptops, or ...

using

SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...

was more established. With the advancement of cellular technology, RIM released in 2002 the first BlackBerry

cell phone A mobile phone or cell phone is a portable telephone that allows users to make and receive calls over a radio frequency link while moving within a designated telephone service area, unlike fixed-location phones ( landline phones). This radio ...

, the BlackBerry 5810, that ran on the

GSM The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is a family of standards to describe the protocols for second-generation (2G) digital cellular networks, as used by mobile devices such as mobile phones and Mobile broadband modem, mobile broadba ...

network and used

GPRS General Packet Radio Service (GPRS), also called 2.5G, is a mobile data standard on the 2G cellular communication network's Global System for Mobile Communications, global system for mobile communications (GSM). Networks and mobile devices wit ...

for its email and

web Web most often refers to: * Spider web, a silken structure created by the animal * World Wide Web or the Web, an Internet-based hypertext system Web, WEB, or the Web may also refer to: Computing * WEB, a literate programming system created by ...

capabilities. RIM also gained a reputation for secure communications, which led to the US government becoming its biggest customer and making use of BlackBerry services. Following the release of the

BlackBerry Pearl The BlackBerry Pearl is a smartphone developed by BlackBerry Limited, Research In Motion (RIM). The Pearl (8100) was launched on September 12, 2006, marking the first BlackBerry device Camera phone, with a camera, media player and other multimedi ...

in September 2006, as well as

BlackBerry Messenger BBM, also known by its full name BlackBerry Messenger, was a consumer-oriented proprietary mobile instant messenger and videotelephony application service originally developed by BlackBerry Limited and later briefly by Indonesian company Emtek ...

software, BlackBerry began attracting many mainstream consumers outside its traditional enterprise userbase, and was influential in the development and advancement of

smartphones A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as mult ...

in this era. The BlackBerry line was for some time also the leading smartphone platform in the US. At its peak in September 2011, there were 85 million BlackBerry services subscribers worldwide. In the following years it lost market mainly to the Android and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

platforms; its numbers had fallen to 23 million in March 2016, a decline of almost three-quarters. In 2013, RIM replaced the existing proprietary operating system,

BlackBerry OS BlackBerry OS is a discontinued proprietary mobile operating system developed by Canadian company Research In Motion (now BlackBerry Limited) for its BlackBerry line of smartphone handheld devices. The operating system provides multitasking ...

, with a new revamped platform called

BlackBerry 10 BlackBerry 10 (BB10) is a proprietary mobile operating system for the BlackBerry line of smartphones, both developed by BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion). Released in January 2013, BlackBerry 10 is a complete rework from t ...

, while in 2015, the company began releasing Android-based BlackBerry-branded smartphones, beginning with the

BlackBerry Priv The BlackBerry Priv is a slider smartphone developed by BlackBerry Limited. Following a series of leaks, it was officially announced by BlackBerry CEO John Chen on September 25, 2015, and released on November 6, 2015. The Priv was the first Bla ...

. On September 28, 2016, BlackBerry Limited (formerly Research In Motion) announced it would cease designing its own BlackBerry devices in favor of licensing to partners to design, manufacture, and market. The original licensors were BB Merah Putih for the

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania, between the Indian Ocean, Indian and Pacific Ocean, Pacific oceans. Comprising over List of islands of Indonesia, 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, ...

n market, Optiemus Infracom for the

South Asia South Asia is the southern Subregion#Asia, subregion of Asia that is defined in both geographical and Ethnicity, ethnic-Culture, cultural terms. South Asia, with a population of 2.04 billion, contains a quarter (25%) of the world's populatio ...

n market, and

BlackBerry Mobile BlackBerry Mobile was a trading name used by TCL Communication between December 2016 and August 2020 to manufacture and sell BlackBerry-branded devices worldwide, excluding the regions where BB Merah Putih (Indonesia) and Optiemus Infracom (I ...

trade name A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

TCL Technology TCL Technology Group Corp. (originally an abbreviation for Telecom Corporation Limited) is a Chinese partially State-owned enterprise, state-owned electronics company headquartered in Huizhou, Guangdong province. TCL develops, manufactures, a ...

) for all other markets. New BlackBerry-branded products did not manage to gain significant market impact and were last produced in 2020; a new American licensee planned to release a new BlackBerry before it shut down in 2022 without a product. On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry Limited discontinued its legacy BlackBerry software platform services which includes blackberry.net email, BlackBerry Messenger, BlackBerry World, BlackBerry Protect and Voice Search – BlackBerry devices based on the Android platform were not affected.

History

Research in Motion BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartpho ...

(RIM), founded in

Waterloo, Ontario Waterloo is a city in the Canadian province of Ontario. It is one of three cities in the Regional Municipality of Waterloo (formerly Waterloo County, Ontario, Waterloo County). Waterloo is situated about west-southwest of Toronto, but it is n ...

, first developed the Inter@ctive Pager 900, announced on September 18, 1996. The Inter@ctive Pager 900 was a clamshell-type device that allowed two-way paging. After the success of the 900, the Inter@ctive Pager 800 was created for IBM, which bought US$10 million worth of them on February 4, 1998. The next device to be released was the Inter@ctive Pager 950, on August 26, 1998. The first device to carry the BlackBerry name was the BlackBerry 850, an email pager, released January 19, 1999. Although identical in appearance 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 first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany. BlackBerry was a solution devised by RIM for delivering e-mail over several different wireless networks. The name BlackBerry was coined by the marketing company Lexicon Branding. The name was chosen out of about 40 potential names, because of the resemblance of the keyboard's buttons to that of the

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...

lets that compose the

blackberry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

fruit, and the instant pronunciation which reflected the speed of this

push email Push email is an email system that provides an always-on capability, in which when new email arrives at the mail delivery agent (MDA) (commonly called mail server), it is immediately, actively transferred ( pushed) by the MDA to the mail user agen ...

system. The original BlackBerry devices, the RIM 850 and 857, used the

network. In 2002, the more commonly known convergent BlackBerry 5810 smartphone was released, which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging,

Internet fax The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...

ing,

Web browsing Web navigation refers to the process of navigating a Computer network, network of web resource, information resources in the International World Wide Web Conference, World Wide Web, which is organized as hypertext or hypermedia. The user interfac ...

and other wireless information services. BlackBerry gained market share in the mobile industry by concentrating on email. BlackBerry began to offer email service on non-BlackBerry devices, such as the

Palm Treo The Palm Treo (stylized as Trēo) is a discontinued line of smartphones originally developed by Handspring, which was bought by Palm, Inc. They were then manufactured and maintained by Palm, Inc. Treos had a number of integrated features such ...

, through the proprietary BlackBerry Connect software. The original BlackBerry device had a

monochrome A monochrome or monochromatic image, object or palette is composed of one color (or values of one color). Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale (typically digital) or black-and-white (typically analog). In physics, mon ...

display while newer models installed color displays. All newer models have been optimized for " thumbing", the use of only the

s 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 four-way scrolling. The trackball was replaced by the

optical trackpad An optical trackpad is an input device based on an optical sensor, which detects the displacement of a finger that is moving on top of it. The sensor is used typically in smartphones, where it replaces the D-pad, and in ultra-portable or ultra-m ...

with the introduction of the Curve 8500 series. Models made to use

iDEN Integrated Digital Enhanced Network (iDEN) is a mobile telecommunications technology, developed by Motorola, which provides its users the benefits of a Trunked radio system, trunked radio and a mobile phone, cellular telephone. It was called ...

networks, such as

Nextel Nextel Communications, Inc. was an American wireless service operator that merged with and ceased to exist as a subsidiary of Sprint Corporation, which would later be bought by T-Mobile US and folded into that company. Nextel in Brazil, and form ...

, SouthernLINC, NII Holdings, and Mike also incorporate a

push-to-talk Push-to-talk (PTT), also known as press-to-transmit, is a method of having conversations or talking on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode. H ...

(PTT) feature, similar to a

two-way radio A two-way radio is a radio transceiver (a radio that can both transmit and receive radio waves), which is used for bidirectional person-to-person voice communication with other users with similar radios, in contrast to a broadcast receiver, whi ...

. On January 30, 2013, BlackBerry announced the release of the Z10 and Q10 smartphones. Both models consisted of touch screens: the Z10 features an all-touch design and the Q10 combines a QWERTY keyboard with touchscreen features. On March 5, 2013, BlackBerry announced the signature of a large contract to secure German government Data and Voice communications.

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German retired politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. She is the only woman to have held the office. She was Leader of the Opposition from 2002 to 2005 and Leade ...

signed the contract publicly an
appeared at Cebit
along with BlackBerry Europe Managing Director, Herve Liboureau. During the second financial quarter of 2013, BlackBerry sold 6.8 million handsets, but was eclipsed by the sales of competitor Nokia's Lumia model for the first time. On August 12, 2013, BlackBerry announced the intention to sell the company due to their increasingly unfavorable financial position and competition in the mobile industry. 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. On September 23, 2013,

Fairfax Financial Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited is a Canadian financial holding company based in Toronto, Ontario, engaged in property, casualty, insurance and reinsurance, investment management, and insurance claims management. The company operates primari ...

, which owns a 10%

equity stake In finance, equity is an ownership interest in property that may be subject to debts or other liabilities. Equity is measured for accounting purposes by subtracting liabilities from the value of the assets owned. For example, if someone owns a ...

in BlackBerry, made an offer to

acquire ''Acquire'' is a board game published by 3M in 1964 that involves multi-player mergers and acquisitions. It was one of the most popular games in the 3M Bookshelf games series published in the 1960s, and the only one still published in the Uni ...

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. On November 4, 2013, BlackBerry replaced Thorsten Heins with new interim CEO John S. Chen, the former CEO of

Sybase Sybase, Inc. was an enterprise software and services company. The company produced software relating to relational databases, with facilities located in California and Massachusetts. Sybase was acquired by SAP in 2010; SAP ceased using the Syba ...

. 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. On November 13, 2013, Chen released an open message: "We are committed to reclaiming our success." On December 17, 2013, BlackBerry announced a contract for more tha
10'000 BlackBerry Z10 for Peugeot SA
On February 26, 2014, during

Mobile World Congress MWC Barcelona (formerly but still commonly referred to as Mobile World Congress) is an annual trade show dedicated to the mobile communications industry. The event is held in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain, at the Fira de Barcelona Gran ...

Airbus signed a contract with BlackBerry
Europe Managing Director, Herve Liboureau, for the BlackBerry 10 entire Mobility Management suite. 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 A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that certifies a person's identity and nationality for international travel. A passport allows its bearer to enter and temporarily reside in a foreign country, access local aid ...

handset—consisting of a 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. On December 17, 2014, the BlackBerry Classic was introduced; it is meant to be more in line with the former Bold series, incorporating navigation buttons similar to the previous BlackBerry OS devices. When it was discontinued in June 2016, it was the last BlackBerry with a keyboard that dominates the front of the phone in the classic style. In September 2015, BlackBerry officially unveiled the

, a slider, with a German made camera lens with 18 megapixels,

phablet A phablet (, ) is a mobile device combining or straddling the size formats of smartphones and tablets. The word is a blend word of ''phone'' and ''tablet''. The term was largely unused by the late 2010s, since average phone sizes eventually morph ...

that utilizes the Android operating system with additional security and productivity-oriented features inspired by the BlackBerry operating systems. However, BlackBerry COO Marty Beard told Bloomberg that "The company's never said that we would not build another BB10 device." On July 26, 2016, the company hinted that another model with a physical keyboard was "coming shortly". The same day, BlackBerry unveiled a mid-range Android model with only an on-screen keyboard, the BlackBerry DTEK50, powered by the then latest version of Android Marshmallow (version 6.0). (The Priv could be upgraded to the same version of the Android operating system as well.) This device featured a 5.2-inch full high-definition (or in other words, a FHD), display. BlackBerry chief security officer David Kleidermacher stressed data security during the launch, indicating that this model included built-in malware protection and encryption of all user information. Industry observers pointed out that the DTEK50 is a re-branded version of the

Alcatel Idol 4 Alcatel Idol 4 and Idol 4S are smartphones manufactured by TCL Corporation and marketed by Alcatel Mobile Phones. They were unveiled during Mobile World Congress in February 2016, and are a successor to the Idol 3. The Idol 4 and 4S are positione ...

with additional security-oriented software customizations, manufactured and designed by

TCL TCL or Tcl or TCLs may refer to: Business * TCL Technology, a Chinese consumer electronics and appliance company ** TCL Electronics, a subsidiary of TCL Technology * Texas Collegiate League, a collegiate baseball league * Trade Centre Limited ...

. In September 2016, BlackBerry Limited agreed to a licensing partnership with an

n company to set up a new joint venture company called BB Merah Putih to "source, distribute, and market BlackBerry handsets in Indonesia". On October 25, 2016, BlackBerry released the BlackBerry DTEK60, the second device in the DTEK series, manufactured and designed by

. The device features a 5.5-inch Quad-HD touch screen display running on Qualcomm's Snapdragon 820 processor with support for Quick Charge 3.0, USB Type-C, and a fingerprint sensor. In October 2016, it was announced that BlackBerry will be working with the

Ford Motor Company of Canada Ford Motor Company of Canada, Limited (Canadian French, French: ''Ford du Canada Limitée'') was founded on August 17, 1904, for the purpose of manufacturing and selling Ford cars in Canada. It was originally known as the Walkerville Wagon Works a ...

to develop software for the car manufacturer's connected vehicles. In February 2017, a $20m class action lawsuit against BlackBerry was announced by the former employees of the company. In March 2017, BB Merah Putih announced the BlackBerry Aurora, an Indonesian-made and sold device, running an operating system based on Android 7.0 out of the box. In March 2018, it was announced that BlackBerry would be working with

Jaguar Land Rover Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC is the holding company of Jaguar Land Rover, also known as JLR, and is a British multinational automobile manufacturer which produces luxury vehicles and SUVs and has its head office in Whitley, Coventry, Unite ...

to develop software for the car manufacturer's vehicles. In June 2018, BlackBerry in partnership with TCL Mobile and Optiemus Infracom launched the KEY2 at a global launch in New York. This is the third device to sport a keyboard while running Google's Android OS. In 2017, BlackBerry Mobile released the

BlackBerry KeyOne The BlackBerry KeyOne (stylized as BlackBerry KEYone, also known as BlackBerry Key 1, BlackBerry Key1) is a touchscreen-based Android smartphone with an integrated hardware keyboard that is manufactured by TCL Corporation under the brand name o ...

—which was known for having a physical keyboard below its 4.5 inch touchscreen and a long battery life—and was the last device to be designed internally by BlackBerry. Also in 2017, BlackBerry Mobile, under their partner license agreements, released the BlackBerry Aurora, BlackBerry KeyOne L/E BLACK, and the

BlackBerry Motion The BlackBerry Motion is an Android smartphone manufactured by TCL Corporation under the brand name of BlackBerry Mobile. It was launched on 9 October 2017 in Dubai at the Gitex Technology Week, and first went on sale in the United Arab Emirates ...

. In June 2018, the

BlackBerry Key2 The BlackBerry Key2 (stylized as BlackBerry KEY²) is a touchscreen-based Android smartphone with a portrait-oriented, fixed (not sliding) integrated hardware keyboard that is manufactured by TCL Corporation under the brand name of BlackBerry M ...

was launched in international markets, and in India by licensee Optiemus Infracom. The Key2 sports a dual camera setup and incorporates features such as portrait mode and optical zoom. In August 2018, after the launch of the BlackBerry Key2, Optiemus Infracom announced the launch of the BlackBerry Evolve and Evolve X smartphones for the Indian market sold exclusively on Amazon India. The smartphones have been conceptualized, designed and manufactured in India. As of 2019, BB Merah Putih's website has been repurposed, with

BlackBerry Limited BlackBerry Limited, formerly Research In Motion (RIM), is a Canadian software company specializing in secure communications and the Internet of things, Internet of Things (IoT). Founded in 1984, it developed the BlackBerry brand of Interactiv ...

stating that only technical support will be offered for the Indonesian devices built by the company. Additionally, the operational status of Optiemus is unknown as of September 2020, as there have not been any updates posted regarding BlackBerry products in India since 2018. On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry Limited discontinued services for all non-Android BlackBerry devices. In October 2023, it was announced that Blackberry Chief Operating Officer, John Chen would be leaving the company after ten years. Richard Lynch will take over as interim CEO and chair of the board.

Intellectual property litigation

NTP Inc case

In 2000 NTP sent notice of its wireless email patents to a number of companies and offered to license the patents to them. NTP brought a patent-infringement lawsuit against one of the companies, Research In Motion, in the

United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (in case citations, E.D. Va.) is one of two United States district courts serving the Commonwealth of Virginia. It has jurisdiction over the Northern Virginia, Hampton Roa ...

. This court is well known for its strict adherence to timetables and deadlines, sometimes referred to as the "

rocket docket A rocket docket is a court or other tribunal that is noted for its speedy disposition of cases and controversies that come before it, often by maintaining strict adherence to the law as pertains to filing deadlines, etc. The term was originally ap ...

", and is particularly efficient at trying patent cases. The jury eventually found that the NTP patents were valid; furthermore, the jury established that RIM had infringed the patents in a "willful" manner, and the infringement had cost NTP US$33 million in damages (the greater of a reasonable royalty or lost profits). The judge, James R. Spencer, increased the damages to US$53 million as a punitive measure due to the willful nature of the infringement. He also instructed RIM to pay NTP's legal fees of US$4.5 million and issued an injunction ordering RIM to cease and desist infringing the patents—this decision would have resulted in the closure of BlackBerry's systems in the US. RIM appealed all of the findings of the court. The injunction and other remedies were stayed pending the outcome of the appeals. In March 2005 during appeal, RIM and NTP tried to negotiate a settlement of their dispute; the settlement was to be for $450 million. Negotiations broke down due to other issues. On June 10, 2005, the matter returned to the courts. In early November 2005 the

US Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the U.S. government that oversees the domestic enforcement of federal laws and the administration of justice. It is equ ...

filed a brief requesting that RIM's service be allowed to continue because of the large number of BlackBerry users in the US Federal Government. In January 2006 the

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

refused to hear RIM's appeal of the holding of liability for patent infringement, and the matter was returned to a lower court. The prior granted

injunction An injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a special court order compelling a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. It was developed by the English courts of equity but its origins go back to Roman law and the equitable rem ...

preventing all RIM sales in the US and use of the BlackBerry device might have been enforced by the presiding district court judge had the two parties been unable to reach a settlement. On February 9, 2006, the

US Department of Defense The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD, or DOD) is an executive department of the U.S. federal government charged with coordinating and supervising the six U.S. armed services: the Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, Space Force, ...

(DOD) filed a brief stating that an injunction shutting down the BlackBerry service while excluding government users was unworkable. The DOD also stated that the BlackBerry was crucial for national security given the large number of government users. On February 9, 2006, RIM announced that it had developed software workarounds that would not infringe the NTP patents, and would implement those if the injunction was enforced. On March 3, 2006, after a stern warning from Judge Spencer, RIM and NTP announced that they had settled their dispute. Under the terms of the settlement, RIM has agreed to pay NTP $612.5 million (USD) in a "full and final settlement of all claims." In a statement, RIM said that "all terms of the agreement have been finalized and the litigation against RIM has been dismissed by a court order this afternoon. The agreement eliminates the need for any further court proceedings or decisions relating to damages or injunctive relief." The settlement amount is believed low by some analysts, because of the absence of any future royalties on the technology in question. On May 26, 2017, BlackBerry announced that it had reached an agreement with Qualcomm Incorporated resolving all amounts payable in connection with the interim arbitration decision announced on April 12, 2017. Following a joint stipulation by the parties, the arbitration panel has issued a final award providing for the payment by Qualcomm to BlackBerry of a total amount of U.S.$940,000,000 including interest and attorneys' fees, net of certain royalties due from BlackBerry for calendar 2016 and the first quarter of calendar 2017. In summer 2020, the

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

-based startup OnwardMobility signed a new licensing agreement with

to develop a new 5G BlackBerry smartphone. OnwardMobility was cooperating with

and

FIH Mobile Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (), Trade name, doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group () in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group () in China, and Foxconn () internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational electron ...

(a subsidiary of

Foxconn Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (), Trade name, doing business as Hon Hai Technology Group () in Taiwan, Foxconn Technology Group () in China, and Foxconn () internationally, is a Taiwanese multinational corporation, multinational electron ...

) as they "sought to revitalize the iconic BlackBerry brand through an Android-based, next-gen Wi-Fi device." However, in a statement released on February 18, 2022, OnwardMobility said that not only would the development of the new BlackBerry device not be moving forward, but the company itself would be shutting down, as well.

KIK

On November 24, 2010,

(RIM) removed

Kik Messenger Kik Messenger, commonly called Kik, is a freeware instant messaging mobile app from the Canadian company Kik Interactive, available on iOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and Android operating systems. The application uses a smartphone's internet connectio ...

from BlackBerry App World and limited the functionality of the software for its users. RIM also sued Kik Interactive for

patent infringement A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...

and misuse of

trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...

s. In October 2013, the companies settled the lawsuit, with the terms undisclosed.

Facebook and Instagram

In 2018 it was reported that BlackBerry would be filing legal action against

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

over perceived intellectual property infringements within both

Facebook Messenger Messenger, formerly known as Facebook Messenger, is an American proprietary instant messaging service developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008, the client application of Messenger is currently available o ...

and

WhatsApp WhatsApp (officially WhatsApp Messenger) is an American social media, instant messaging (IM), and voice-over-IP (VoIP) service owned by technology conglomerate Meta. It allows users to send text, voice messages and video messages, make vo ...

as well as with

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

. They settled for an undisclosed amount on the 15th of January 2021.

Service outages

At various stages of the company's history it suffered occasional service outages that have been referred to in the media as "embarrassing". In 2005 the company suffered a relatively short-term outage reportedly among a small handful of North America carriers. The service was restored after several hours. In 2007 the e-mail service suffered an outage which led for calls by some questioning the integrity towards BlackBerry's perceived centralized system. In 2009 the company had an outage reportedly covering the whole of North America. At 2011-10-10 10:00 UTC began a multi-day outage in

Europe, the Middle East and Africa Europe, the Middle East and Africa, commonly known by its acronym EMEA among the North American business spheres, is a geographical region used by institutions, governments and global spheres of marketing, media and business when referring to t ...

, affecting millions of BlackBerry users. There was another outage the following day. By October 12, 2011, the BlackBerry Internet Service went down in North America. Research In Motion attributed data overload due to switch failures in their two data centres in Waterloo in Canada and

Slough Slough () is a town in Berkshire, England, in the Thames Valley, west of central London and north-east of Reading, at the intersection of the M4, M40 and M25 motorways. It is part of the historic county of Buckinghamshire. In 2021, the ...

in England as the cause of the service disruptions. The outage intensified calls by shareholders for a shake-up in the company's leadership. Some estimates by BlackBerry are that the company lost between $50 million to $54 million due to global email service failure and outage in 2011.

Retail stores

Many BlackBerry retail stores operated outside

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, such as in

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. In December 2007 a BlackBerry Store opened in

Farmington Hills, Michigan Farmington Hills is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. A northwestern Metro Detroit, suburb of Detroit, Farmington Hills is located roughly from downtown Detroit. As of the 2020 United States censu ...

. The store offers BlackBerry device models from

AT&T AT&T Inc., an abbreviation for its predecessor's former name, the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the w ...

T-Mobile T-Mobile is the brand of telecommunications by Deutsche Telekom Deutsche Telekom AG (, ; often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a partially state-owned German telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn and the largest telec ...

Verizon Verizon Communications Inc. ( ), is an American telecommunications company headquartered in New York City. It is the world's second-largest telecommunications company by revenue and its mobile network is the largest wireless carrier in the ...

, and Sprint, the major U.S. carriers which offer

smartphone A smartphone is a mobile phone with advanced computing capabilities. It typically has a touchscreen interface, allowing users to access a wide range of applications and services, such as web browsing, email, and social media, as well as multi ...

s. There were three prior attempts at opening BlackBerry stores in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

(

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

) and

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

(

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

), but they eventually folded. There are also BlackBerry Stores operated by Wireless Giant at airports in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

, Charlotte, Minneapolis–St. Paul,

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

, and Newark, but several have been slated for closing. On September 23, 2015, BlackBerry opened its first

pop-up store Pop-up retail, also known as pop-up store (pop-up shop in the UK, Australia and Ireland) or flash retailing, is a trend of opening short-term sales spaces that last for days to weeks before closing down, often to latch onto a fad or scheduled e ...

Frankfurt Frankfurt am Main () is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Hesse. Its 773,068 inhabitants as of 2022 make it the List of cities in Germany by population, fifth-most populous city in Germany. Located in the forela ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Certification

* BCESA (BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Sales Associate, BCESA40 in full) is a BlackBerry Certification for professional users of RIM (Research In Motion) BlackBerry wireless email devices. The Certification requires the user to pass several exams relating to the BlackBerry Devices, all its functions including Desktop software and providing technical support to Customers of BlackBerry Devices. The BCESA, BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Sales Associate qualification, is the first of three levels of professional BlackBerry Certification. * BCTA (BlackBerry Certified Technical Associate) * BlackBerry Certified Support Associate T2 More information on certifications is on the BlackBerry.com website. The BlackBerry Technical Certifications available are: * BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Server Consultant (BCESC) * BlackBerry Certified Server Support Technician (BCSST) * BlackBerry Certified Support Technician (BCSTR)

Products

Android devices: * BlackBerry Evolve X (2018) * BlackBerry Evolve (2018) *

(2018) *

(2017) * BlackBerry Aurora (2017) *

(2017) * BlackBerry DTEK60 (2016) * BlackBerry DTEK50 (2016) *

(2015) BlackBerry 10 devices: * BlackBerry Leap (2015) * BlackBerry Classic (2014) * BlackBerry Passport (2014) * BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9983 (2014) * BlackBerry Z3 (2014) * BlackBerry Z30 (2013) *

BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9982 The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9982 is a high-end smartphone by BlackBerry and Porsche Design. Released in December 2013, it is based upon the BlackBerry Z10, having exactly the same internal hardware specifications except for an increase of int ...

(2013) *

BlackBerry Q10 The BlackBerry Q10 is a touchscreen-based QWERTY smartphone developed by BlackBerry, previously known as RIM (Research In Motion). The BlackBerry Q10 is the second of two BlackBerry smartphones unveiled at the BlackBerry 10 event on January 30, ...

(2013) * BlackBerry Z10 (2013) * BlackBerry Q5 (2013) BlackBerry 7 devices: * BlackBerry Bold series (2011): BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930/9790 * BlackBerry 9720 (2013) * BlackBerry Porsche Design (2012):

BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 The BlackBerry Porsche Design P'9981 is a bar-style smartphone developed by Research In Motion and Porsche Design, announced together on October 27, 2011 in Dubai. It was a variant of the latest model of the BlackBerry Bold, BlackBerry Bold 9900, ...

* BlackBerry Torch series (2011): BlackBerry Torch 9810 * BlackBerry Torch series (2011): BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860 * BlackBerry Curve series (2011): BlackBerry 9350/ 9360/ 9370/ 9380 * BlackBerry Curve 9320/9220 (2012) BlackBerry 6 devices: * BlackBerry Torch series (2010): BlackBerry Torch 9800 * BlackBerry Curve series (2010): BlackBerry Curve 9300/9330 * BlackBerry Style 9670 (2010) * BlackBerry Pearl series (2010): BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100/9105 * BlackBerry Bold series (2010–2011): BlackBerry Bold 9780/9788 BlackBerry 5 devices: * BlackBerry Bold series (2008–2010): BlackBerry Bold 9000/9700/9650 * BlackBerry Tour series (2009):

BlackBerry Tour The BlackBerry Tour is a consumer smartphone developed by BlackBerry Limited (known at the time as Research In Motion) and is part of the 9600 device series. This high-end messaging phone combines the multimedia features of the Curve with the glo ...

(9630) * BlackBerry Storm series (2009): BlackBerry Storm 2 (9520/9550) * BlackBerry Storm series (2008): BlackBerry Storm (9500/9530) * BlackBerry Curve series (2009–2010):

BlackBerry Curve 8900 The BlackBerry Curve was a brand of entry-level and mid-range enterprise smartphones that were manufactured by BlackBerry Limited from 2007 until 2013. Early series Original series (8300) The BlackBerry Curve brand was introduced on May 3, 20 ...

(8900/8910/8980) * BlackBerry Curve series (2009): BlackBerry Curve 8520/8530 BlackBerry 4 devices: * BlackBerry 8800 series (2007): BlackBerry 8800/8820/8830 * BlackBerry Pearl series (2006):

8100/8110/8120/8130 * BlackBerry Pearl Flip series (2008): BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220/8230 * BlackBerry Curve series (2007): BlackBerry Curve 8300 (8300/8310/8320/8330/8350i) BlackBerry 3 devices: * BlackBerry Java-based series: 5000, 6000 BlackBerry 2 devices: * BlackBerry phone series: BlackBerry Charm 7100 * BlackBerry color series: 7200, 7500, 7700 BlackBerry 1 devices: * BlackBerry pager models: 850, 857,

950 Year 950 ( CML) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Arab–Byzantine War: A Hamdanid army (30,000 men) led by Sayf al-Dawla raids into Byzantine theme Anatolia. He defea ...

, 957

Hardware

Modern

LTE LTE may refer to: Science and technology * LTE (telecommunication) (Long-Term Evolution), a mobile telephony standard ** LTE Advanced, an enhancement ** LTE Advanced Pro, a further enhancement * Compaq LTE, a line of laptop computers * Leukotrie ...

based phones such as the BlackBerry Z10 have a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus, a proprietary Qualcomm SOC which is based on ARMv7-A architecture, featuring two 1.5 GHz Qualcomm Krait CPU cores, and a 400 MHz Adreno 225 GPU.

-based BlackBerry phones incorporate an

ARM In human anatomy, the arm refers to the upper limb in common usage, although academically the term specifically means the upper arm between the glenohumeral joint (shoulder joint) and the elbow joint. The distal part of the upper limb between ...

7, 9 or 11 processor. Some of the BlackBerry models (Torch 9850/9860, Torch 9810, and Bold 9900/9930) have a 1.2 GHz MSM8655 Snapdragon S2 SOC, 768 MB system memory, and 8 GB of on-board storage. Entry-level models, such as the Curve 9360, feature a Marvell PXA940 clocked at 800 MHz. Some previous BlackBerry devices, such as the Bold 9000, were equipped with Intel XScale 624 MHz processors. The Bold 9700 featured a newer version of the Bold 9000's processor but is clocked at the same speed. The Curve 8520 featured a 512 MHz processor, while BlackBerry 8000 series smartphones, such as the 8700 and the Pearl, are based on the 312 MHz

XScale XScale is a microarchitecture for central processing units initially designed by Intel implementing the ARM architecture (version 5) instruction set. XScale comprises several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE (see more below), with some ...

ARMv5TE PXA900. An exception to this is the BlackBerry 8707 which is based on the 80 MHz Qualcomm 3250 chipset; this was due to the PXA900 chipset not supporting 3G networks. The 80 MHz processor in the BlackBerry 8707 meant the device was often slower to download and render web pages over 3G than the 8700 was over

EDGE Edge or EDGE may refer to: Technology Computing * Edge computing, a network load-balancing system * Edge device, an entry point to a computer network * Adobe Edge, a graphical development application * Microsoft Edge, a web browser developed by ...

networks. Early BlackBerry devices, such as the BlackBerry 950, used

Intel 80386 The Intel 386, originally released as the 80386 and later renamed i386, is the third-generation x86 architecture microprocessor from Intel. It was the first 32-bit computing, 32-bit processor in the line, making it a significant evolution in ...

-based processors. BlackBerry's latest Flagship phone the BlackBerry Z30 based on a 5-inch Super AMOLED, 1280×720 resolution, at 295 ppi 24-bit color depth and powered by Quad-Graphics and Qualcomm's Dual Core 1.7 GHz MSM8960T Pro. The first BlackBerry with an Android operating system was released in late November 2015, the

. It launched with version 5.1.1 but was later upgraded to version 6.0

Android Marshmallow Android Marshmallow ( codenamed Android M during development) is the sixth major version of the Android operating system developed by Google, being the successor to Android Lollipop. It was announced at Google I/O on May 28, 2015, and released ...

. It was first available in four countries but increased to 31 countries by February 28, 2016. Employing a Qualcomm 8992 Snapdragon 808 Hexa-Core, 64-bit, Adreno 418, 600 MHz GPU with 3 GB RAM processor, this unit is equipped with a curved 5.4-inch (2560 x 1440) OLED display and a sliding QWERTY keyboard which is hidden when not in use; Google's voice recognition that allows for dictating e-mails is also available. The Priv retained the best BlackBerry 10 features. Its 3,410 mAh battery is said to provide 22.5 hours of mixed use. The 18-megapixel camera, with a Schneider-Kreuznach lens, can also record 4K video; a secondary selfie camera is also provided. Several important apps unique to the Priv were available from Google Play by mid December.

Software

A new

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

, was released for two new BlackBerry models (Z10 and Q10) on January 30, 2013. At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins demonstrated some of the new features of the OS, including a camera which is able to rewind frame-by-frame separately of individual faces in an image, to allow selection of the best of different shots, which is then stitched seamlessly to an optimal composite, an intelligent, predictive, and adapting keyboard, and a gesture based user interface designed around the idea of "peek" and "flow". Apps are available for BlackBerry 10 devices through the

BlackBerry World BlackBerry World was an application distribution service ( app marketplace) by BlackBerry Limited. The service provided BlackBerry users with an environment to browse, download, and update mobile apps, including third-party applications. The ser ...

storefront. The previous

developed for older BlackBerry devices was

, a proprietary multitasking environment developed by RIM. The operating system is designed for use of input devices such as the track wheel, track ball, and track pad. The OS provides support for Java MIDP 1.0 and WAP 1.2. Previous versions allowed wireless synchronisation with

Microsoft Exchange Server Microsoft Exchange Server is a mail server and calendaring server developed by Microsoft. It runs exclusively on Windows Server operating systems. The first version was called Exchange Server 4.0, to position it as the successor to the relat ...

email and calendar, as well as with Lotus Domino email. OS 5.0 provides a subset of MIDP 2.0, and allows complete wireless activation and synchronisation with Exchange email, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts, and adds support for

Novell GroupWise GroupWise is a messaging and collaboration platform from OpenText that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The GroupWise platform consists of desktop client software, which ...

and

Lotus Notes HCL Notes (formerly Lotus Notes then IBM Notes) is a proprietary collaborative software platform for Unix ( AIX), IBM i, Windows, Linux, and macOS, sold by HCLTech. The client application is called Notes while the server component is branded ...

. The BlackBerry Curve 9360, BlackBerry Torch 9810, Bold 9900/9930, Curve 9310/9320 and Torch 9850/9860 featured the 2011 BlackBerry OS 7. Apps are available for these devices through BlackBerry World (which before 2013 was called BlackBerry App World). Third-party developers can write software using these APIs, and proprietary BlackBerry APIs as well. Any application that makes use of certain restricted functionality must be digitally signed so that it can be associated to a developer account at RIM. This signing procedure guarantees the authorship of an application but does not guarantee the quality or security of the code. RIM provides tools for developing applications and themes for BlackBerry. Applications and themes can be loaded onto BlackBerry devices through BlackBerry World, Over The Air (OTA) through the BlackBerry mobile browser, or through BlackBerry Desktop Manager. BlackBerry devices, as well as Android, iOS, and Windows Phone platforms, have the ability to use the proprietary

, also known as BBM, software for sending and receiving encrypted instant messages, voice notes, images and videos via BlackBerry PIN. As long as your cell phone has a data plan these messages are all free of charge. Some of the features of BBM include groups, bar-code scanning, lists, shared calendars, BBM Music and integration with apps and games using the BBM social platform. In April 2013, BlackBerry announced that it was shutting down its streaming music service, BBM Music, which was active for almost two years since its launch. BlackBerry Messenger Music closed on June 2, 2013. In July 2014, BlackBerry revealed BlackBerry Assistant, a new feature for BlackBerry OS 10.3, and BlackBerry Passport hardware. The feature is a digital personal assistant to help keep you "organized, informed and productive." In December 2014, BlackBerry and NantHealth, a healthcare-focused data provider, launched a secure cancer

genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...

browser, giving doctors the ability to access patients' genetic data on the BlackBerry Passport smartphone. On January 3, 2022, BlackBerry announced that they would discontinue their services on all BlackBerry phones not running on Android on January 4. According to BlackBerry, "As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality".

Phones with BlackBerry email client

Several non-BlackBerry mobile phones have been released featuring the BlackBerry email client which connects to BlackBerry servers. Many of these phones have full QWERTY keyboards. * AT&T Tilt * HTC Advantage X7500 *

HTC TyTN The HTC TyTN (also known as the HTC Hermes and the HTC P4500) is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC PDA designed and marketed by High Tech Computer Corporation of Taiwan. It has a touchscreen with a left-side slide-out QWERTY keyboar ...

Motorola Motorola, Inc. () was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois. It was founded by brothers Paul and Joseph Galvin in 1928 and had been named Motorola since 1947. Many of Motorola's products had been ...

MPx220, some models * Nokia 6810 * Nokia 6820 *

Nokia 9300 The Nokia 9300 is a Nokia Series 80 Symbian mobile phone introduced in 2004. It is used as a normal though bulky mobile phone in closed mode, when it is flipped open it can be used like a very small notebook computer with a 640×200 screen. The ...

* Nokia 9300i * Nokia 9500 *

Nokia Eseries The Nokia Eseries is a discontinued line of business-oriented smartphones running Symbian OS, produced by Nokia from 2005 to 2011. The Eseries brand became the partial replacement for the top-line products of the Nokia 6000 'Classic Business' ran ...

phones, except models Nokia E66, Nokia E71 * Qtek 9100 * Qtek 9000 *

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

t719 *

Siemens Siemens AG ( ) is a German multinational technology conglomerate. It is focused on industrial automation, building automation, rail transport and health technology. Siemens is the largest engineering company in Europe, and holds the positi ...

SK65 * Sony Ericsson P910 * Sony Ericsson P990 * Sony Ericsson M600i * Sony Ericsson P1

Third-party software

Third-party software available for use on BlackBerry devices includes full-featured

database management systems In computing, a database is an organized collection of data or a type of data store based on the use of a database management system (DBMS), the software that interacts with end users, applications, and the database itself to capture and ana ...

, which can be used to support

customer relationship management Customer relationship management (CRM) is a strategic process that organizations use to manage, analyze, and improve their interactions with customers. By leveraging data-driven insights, CRM helps businesses optimize communication, enhance cus ...

clients and other applications that must manage large volumes of potentially complex data. In March 2011, RIM announced an optional Android player that could play applications developed for the Android system would be available for the

BlackBerry PlayBook The BlackBerry PlayBook is a mini tablet computer that was developed by BlackBerry. It was manufactured by Quanta Computer, an original design manufacturer (ODM).

, RIM's first entry in the tablet market. On August 24, 2011 ''

Bloomberg News Bloomberg News (originally Bloomberg Business News) is an international news agency headquartered in New York City and a division of Bloomberg L.P. Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through Bloomberg Terminals, Bloomberg T ...

'' reported unofficial rumors that BlackBerry devices would be able to run Android applications when RIM brings QNX and the Android App Player to BlackBerry. On October 20, 2011, RIM officially announced that Android applications could run, unmodified, on the BlackBerry tablet and the newest BlackBerry phones, using the newest version of its operating system.

Connectivity

BlackBerry smartphones can be integrated into an organization's email system through a software package called

BlackBerry Enterprise Server BlackBerry Enterprise Server designates the middleware software package that is part of the BlackBerry wireless platform supplied by BlackBerry Limited. The software plus service connects to messaging and collaboration software (MDaemon Messaging ...

(BES) through version 5, and BlackBerry Enterprise Service (BES) as of version 10. (There were no versions 6 through 9.) Versions of BES are available for Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Domino,

and

Google Apps Google Workspace (formerly G Suite, formerly Google Apps) is a collection of cloud computing, Productivity software, productivity and Collaborative software, collaboration tools, software and products developed and marketed by Google. It con ...

. While individual users may be able to use a wireless provider's email services without having to install BES themselves, organizations with multiple users usually run BES on their own network. BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry OS 10 or later can also be managed directly by a Microsoft Exchange Server, using Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) policies, in the same way that an iOS or Android device can. (EAS supports fewer management controls than BES does.) Some third-party companies provide hosted BES solutions. Every BlackBerry has a unique ID called a BlackBerry PIN, which is used to identify the device to the BES. BlackBerry at one time provided a free BES software called BES Express (BESX). The primary BES feature is to relay email from a corporate mailbox to a BlackBerry phone. The BES monitors the user's mailbox, relaying new messages to the phone via BlackBerry's

Network Operations Center A network operations center (NOC, pronounced like the word ''knock''), also known as a "network management center", is one or more locations from which network monitoring and control, or network management, is exercised over a computer, teleco ...

(NOC) and user's wireless provider. This feature is known as

, because all new emails, contacts, task entries, memopad entries, and calendar entries are pushed out to the BlackBerry device immediately (as opposed to the user synchronising the data manually or having the device poll the server at intervals). BlackBerry also supports polling email, through third-party applications. The messaging system built into the BlackBerry only understands how to receive messages from a BES or the BIS, these services handle the connections to the user's mail providers. Device storage also enables the mobile user to access all data off-line in areas without wireless service. When the user reconnects to wireless service, the BES sends the latest data. A feature of the newer models of the BlackBerry is their ability to quickly track the user's current location through

trilateration Trilateration is the use of distances (or "ranges") for determining the unknown position coordinates of a point of interest, often around Earth ( geopositioning). When more than three distances are involved, it may be called multilateration, f ...

without the use of GPS, thus saving battery life and time. Trilateration can be used as a quick, less battery intensive way to provide location-aware applications with the co-ordinates of the user. However, the accuracy of BlackBerry trilateration is less than that of GPS due to a number of factors, including cell tower blockage by large buildings, mountains, or distance. BES also provides phones with

TCP/IP The Internet protocol suite, commonly known as TCP/IP, is a framework for organizing the communication protocols used in the Internet and similar computer networks according to functional criteria. The foundational protocols in the suite are ...

connectivity accessed through a component called MDS (Mobile Data System) Connection Service. This allows custom application development using data streams on BlackBerry devices based on the

Sun Microsystems Sun Microsystems, Inc., often known as Sun for short, was an American technology company that existed from 1982 to 2010 which developed and sold computers, computer components, software, and information technology services. Sun contributed sig ...

Java ME Java Platform, Micro Edition or Java ME is a computing platform for development and deployment of porting, portable code for embedded system, embedded and mobile devices (micro-controllers, sensors, gateways, mobile phones, personal digita ...

platform. In addition, BES provides network security, in the form of

Triple DES In cryptography, Triple DES (3DES or TDES), officially the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm (TDEA or Triple DEA), is a symmetric-key block cipher, which applies the DES cipher algorithm three times to each data block. The 56-bit key of the Dat ...

or, more recently, AES encryption of all data (both email and MDS traffic) that travels between the BlackBerry phone and a BlackBerry Enterprise Server. Most providers offer flat monthly pricing via special BlackBerry tariffs for unlimited data between BlackBerry units and BES. In addition to receiving email, organizations can make

intranet An intranet is a computer network for sharing information, easier communication, collaboration tools, operational systems, and other computing services within an organization, usually to the exclusion of access by outsiders. The term is used in ...

s or custom internal applications with unmetered

traffic Traffic is the movement of vehicles and pedestrians along land routes. Traffic laws govern and regulate traffic, while rules of the road include traffic laws and informal rules that may have developed over time to facilitate the orderly an ...

. With more recent versions of the BlackBerry platform, the MDS is no longer a requirement for wireless data access. Starting with OS 3.8 or 4.0, BlackBerry phones can access the Internet (i.e.

access) without an MDS – formerly only email and WAP access was possible without a BES/MDS. The BES/MDS is still required for secure email, data access, and applications that require WAP from carriers that do not allow WAP access. The primary alternative to using BlackBerry Enterprise Server is to use the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS). BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries internationally. BlackBerry Internet Service was developed primarily for the average consumer rather than for the business consumer. The service allows users to access

POP3 In computing, the Post Office Protocol (POP) is an application-layer Internet standard protocol used by e-mail clients to retrieve e-mail from a mail server. Today, POP version 3 (POP3) is the most commonly used version. Together with IMAP, i ...

IMAP In computing, the Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) is an Internet standard protocol used by email clients to retrieve email messages from a mail server over a TCP/IP connection. IMAP is defined by . IMAP was designed with the goal of per ...

, and Outlook Web App (not via Exchange ActiveSync) email accounts without connecting through a

(BES). BlackBerry Internet Service allows up to 10 email accounts to be accessed, including proprietary as well as public email accounts (such as Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and AOL). BlackBerry Internet Service also supports the push capabilities of various other BlackBerry Applications. Various applications developed by RIM for BlackBerry utilise the push capabilities of BIS, such as the Instant Messaging clients (like Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger). The MMS, PIN, interactive gaming, mapping and trading applications require data plans like BIS (not just Wi-Fi) for use. The service is usually provisioned through a mobile phone service provider, though

BlackBerry BlackBerry is a discontinued brand of handheld devices and related mobile services, originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM, later known as BlackBerry Limited) until 2016. The first BlackBerry device ...

actually runs the service.

BlackBerry PIN

The BlackBerry PIN (Personal Identification Number) is an eight-character

hexadecimal Hexadecimal (also known as base-16 or simply hex) is a Numeral system#Positional systems in detail, positional numeral system that represents numbers using a radix (base) of sixteen. Unlike the decimal system representing numbers using ten symbo ...

identification number assigned to each BlackBerry device. PINs cannot be changed manually on the device (though BlackBerry technicians are able to reset or update a PIN server-side), and are locked to each specific BlackBerry. BlackBerry devices can message each other using the PIN directly or by using the

application. BlackBerry PINs are tracked by

s and the BlackBerry Internet Service and are used to direct messages to a BlackBerry device. Emails and any other messages, such as those from the BlackBerry Push Service, are typically directed to a BlackBerry device's PIN. The message can then be routed by a RIM

, and sent to a carrier, which will deliver the message the last mile to the device. In September 2012 RIM announced that the BlackBerry PIN would be replaced by users' BlackBerry ID starting in 2013 with the launch of the BlackBerry 10 platform.

Competition and financial results

The BlackBerry grew swiftly in popularity during the early 2000s, and by 2005 had become highly popular and influential in North America. It then gained the nickname "Crackberry" due to its seemingly addictive nature. As of 2006, some of the BlackBerry's main competitors included offerings from

(namely Motorola Q), Palm, Inc., the

iPAQ The iPAQ is a discontinued line of Pocket PC devices produced from 2000 until 2010. It was first unveiled by Compaq in April 2000. iPAQ included Personal digital assistant, PDA-devices, smartphones and GPS navigation device, GPS-navigators. ...

and other

Pocket PC A Pocket PC (P/PC, PPC) is a class of personal digital assistant (PDA) that runs the Windows Mobile operating system, which is based on Windows Embedded Compact, Windows CE/Windows Embedded Compact, and that has some of the abilities of modern ...

s, and

Nokia Nokia Corporation is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporation, originally established as a pulp mill in 1 ...

(namely

Nokia E61 The Nokia E61 is a mobile phone from the Nokia Eseries, Eseries range, announced as part of the new business-focused line on 12 October 2005 along with the Nokia E60 and Nokia E70, E70. The Nokia E61 is a 3G-capable smartphone running the S60 pl ...

). As of 2009, RIM held 56 percent of the American smartphone market. While the

iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...

from

Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...

quickly became popular after its launch, RIM remained market leaders and was growing too, with sales tripling between 2007 and 2009. In ''Fortune'''s list of the Fastest Growing Companies of 2009, RIM ranked first, while the BlackBerry Curve became the best-selling smartphone in the U.S. in 2009. Despite market share loss, on a global basis, the number of active BlackBerry subscribers increased substantially through the years. For example, for the fiscal period during which the Apple iPhone was first released, RIM reported that they had a subscriber base of 10.5 million BlackBerry subscribers. At the end of 2008, when Android first hit the market, RIM reported that the number of BlackBerry subscribers had increased to 21 million. After the release of the Apple iPhone 5 in September 2012, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins announced that the current global subscribers was up to 80 million, which sparked a 7% jump in shares price. In the year 2010, RIM and Apple continued to dominate the U.S. smartphone market, although the BlackBerry Curve had lost its spot as the single highest selling product to the

iPhone 3GS The iPhone 3GS, stylized as , is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, third generation of the iPhone and the successor to the iPhone 3G. It was unveiled on June 8, 2009 at the Apple Worldw ...

. In the early 2010s, BlackBerry struggled to compete against both the iPhone and the Android platform - after device sales peaking in 2011, its share plunged in the years after, leading to speculation that it would be unable to survive as an independent

going concern A going concern is an accounting term for a business that is assumed will meet its financial obligations when they become due. It functions without the threat of liquidation for the foreseeable future, which is usually regarded as at least the n ...

. However, it managed to maintain significant positions in some markets. BlackBerry's global user base (meaning active accounts) declined dramatically since its peak of 80 million in June 2012, dropping to 46 million users in September 2014. Its market share globally had also declined to less than 1 percent. During the report of its third quarter 2015 results on December 18, 2015, the company said that approximately 700,000 handsets had been sold, down from 1.9 million in the same quarter in 2014, and down from 800,000 in Q2 of 2015. The average sale price per unit was up from $240 to $315, however. This should continue to increase with sales of the new Android Priv device which was selling at a premium price ($800 in Canada, for example). In Q3 of 2015, BlackBerry had a net loss of $89 million U.S. or 17 cents per share, but only a $15 million net loss, or three cents per share, when excluding restructuring charges and other one-time items. Revenue was up slightly from a year earlier, at $557 million U.S. vs. $548 million, primarily because of software sales. Chief executive officer John Chen said that he expects the company's software business to grow at (14 percent) or above the market. At the time, the company was not ready to provide sales figures for the Android-based Priv handset which had been released only weeks earlier, and in only four countries at that time, but Chen offered this comment to analysts: "Depending on how Priv does ... there is a chance we could achieve or get closer to break-even operating profitability for our overall device business in the (fourth) quarter". Due to a continuous reduction in BlackBerry users, in February 2016 the BlackBerry headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, slashed 35 percent of its workforce. By early 2016, BlackBerry market share dropped to 0.2%. In Q4 2016, reports indicate BlackBerry sold only 207,900 units—equivalent to a 0.0% market share.

Indonesian market

In 2011, BlackBerry shipped 43% of all smartphones to

. By April 2014 this had fallen to 3%. The decline in the Indonesian market share mirrors a global trend for the company (0.6% of North America). The retail price of 2,199,000 Indonesian Rupiah ($189) failed to give BlackBerry the boost it needed in Indonesia. The company launched the device with a discounted offer to the first 1000 purchasers, which resulted in a stampede in the capital in which several people were injured. BlackBerry lost market share in Indonesia despite the launch of the Z3 on May 13, 2014. The new device was given a worldwide launch in the city of Jakarta and came on the back of the news that Research in Motion (RIM) was to cut hardware production costs by outsourcing this to Taiwan-based Foxconn Group.

Worldwide user base numbers

The number of active BlackBerry users since 2000 globally:

Security agencies access

Research in Motion agreed to give access to private communications to the governments of

and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

in 2010, and India in 2012. The Saudi and UAE governments had threatened to ban certain services because their law enforcement agencies could not decrypt messages between people of interest. It was revealed as a part of the

2013 mass surveillance disclosures During the 2010s, international media reports revealed new operational details about the Anglophone cryptographic agencies' global surveillance of both foreign and domestic nationals. The reports mostly relate to top secret documents leake ...

that the American and British intelligence agencies, the

National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

(NSA) and the

Government Communications Headquarters Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the United Kingdom. Primari ...

(GCHQ) respectively, have access to the user data on BlackBerry devices. The agencies are able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, e-mails, and notes through BlackBerry Internet Service, which operates outside corporate networks, and which, in contrast to the data passing through internal BlackBerry services (BES), only compresses but does not encrypt data. Documents stated that the NSA was able to access the BlackBerry e-mail system and that they could "see and read SMS traffic". There was a brief period in 2009 when the NSA was unable to access BlackBerry devices, after BlackBerry changed the way they compress their data. Access to the devices was re-established by GCHQ. GCHQ has a tool named SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE, with the capability of "Perfect spoofing of emails from Blackberry targets". In response to the revelations BlackBerry officials stated that "It is not for us to comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic" and added that a "back door pipeline" to their platform had not been established and did not exist. Similar access by the intelligence agencies to many other mobile devices exists, using similar techniques to hack into them. The BlackBerry software includes support for the

Dual EC DRBG Dual_EC_DRBG (Dual Elliptic Curve Deterministic Random Bit Generator) is an algorithm that was presented as a cryptographically secure pseudorandom number generator (CSPRNG) using methods in elliptic curve cryptography. Despite wide public criti ...

CSPRNG algorithm which, due to being probably backdoored by the

NSA The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...

, the US

National Institute of Standards and Technology The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is an agency of the United States Department of Commerce whose mission is to promote American innovation and industrial competitiveness. NIST's activities are organized into Outline of p ...

"strongly recommends" no longer be used. BlackBerry Ltd. has however not issued an advisory to its customers, because they do not consider the probable backdoor a vulnerability. BlackBerry Ltd. also owns US patent 2007189527, which covers the technical design of the backdoor.

Usage

Initially the BlackBerry was mostly popular by corporate and business users. By the late 2000s however, a growing number of other consumers were using it. The (formerly) advanced encryption capabilities of the BlackBerry Smartphone made it eligible for use by government agencies and state forces. On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry announced that older phones running BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier will no longer work.

Barack Obama

Former United States president

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II (born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who was the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the first African American president in American history. O ...

became known for his dependence on a BlackBerry device for communication during his 2008 presidential campaign. Despite the security issues, he insisted on using it even after inauguration. This was seen by some as akin to a "

celebrity endorsement Celebrity branding or celebrity endorsement is a form of advertising campaign or marketing strategy which uses a celebrity's fame or social status to promote a product, brand or service, or to raise awareness about an issue. Marketers use celeb ...

", which marketing experts have estimated to be worth between $25 million and $50 million. His usage of BlackBerry continued until around the end of his presidency.

Hillary Clinton

The

Hillary Clinton email controversy During Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State, her tenure as the United States secretary of state, Hillary Clinton drew controversy by using a private email server for official public communications rather than using official State Depa ...

is associated with

Hillary Clinton Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton ( Rodham; born October 26, 1947) is an American politician, lawyer and diplomat. She was the 67th United States secretary of state in the administration of Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013, a U.S. senator represent ...

continuing to use her black-colored BlackBerry after assuming the office of Secretary of State.

Use by government forces

An example is the

West Yorkshire Police West Yorkshire Police, formerly the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Police, is the territorial police force responsible for policing the metropolitan county of West Yorkshire, England. It is the fourth largest territorial police force in England ...

, which allowed the increase in the presence of police officers along the streets and a reduction in public spending, given that each officer could perform desk work directly via the mobile device, as well as in several other areas and situations. The US Federal Government was slow to move away from the BlackBerry platform, a

State Department The United States Department of State (DOS), or simply the State Department, is an executive department of the U.S. federal government responsible for the country's foreign policy and relations. Equivalent to the ministry of foreign affairs o ...

spokesperson saying in 2013 that BlackBerry devices were still the only mobile devices approved for U.S. missions abroad by the State Department. The high encryption standard that made BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook tablet unique, have since been implemented in other devices, including most Apple devices released after the iPhone 4. The Bangalore City Police is one of the few police departments in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

along with the Pune Police and Kochi Police to use BlackBerry devices.

Use by transportation staff

In the

South West Trains Stagecoach South Western Trains Limited, trading as South West Trains (SWT), was an English train operating company owned by Stagecoach, which operated the South Western franchise between February 1996 and August 2017. SWT operated the majori ...

and

Northern Rail Northern Rail, branded as Northern, was an English train operating company owned by Serco-Abellio that operated the Northern Rail franchise from 2004 until 2016. It was the primary passenger train operator in Northern England, and operated the ...

issued BlackBerry devices to guards in order to improve the communication between control, guards and passengers. In

and many other municipalities within Canada issued BlackBerry devices to most of its employees including but not limited to transportation, technical, water and operations inspection staff and all management staff in order to improve the communication between contracted construction companies, its winter maintenance operations and to assist and successfully organize multimillion-dollar contracts. The devices were the standard mobile device to receive e-mail redirected from GroupWise. As part of their

Internet of Things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...

endeavours, the company announced plans of moving into the shipping industry by adapting the smartphones devices to the communication necessities of freight containers.

Other notable users

As of 2024,

Eminem Marshall Bruce Mathers III (born October 17, 1972), known professionally as Eminem, is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential rappers of all time, he is credited with popula ...

uses a BlackBerry OS phone.

Kim Kardashian Kimberly Noel Kardashian (born October 21, 1980) is an American media personality, socialite, and businesswoman. She first gained media attention as a friend and stylist of Paris Hilton, but received wider notice after the celebrity sex tape ...

was also a BlackBerry user. In 2014, she reportedly said at the Code/Mobile conference that "BlackBerry has my heart and soul. I love it. I'll never get rid of it" and "I have anxiety that I will run out and I won't be able to have a BlackBerry. I'm afraid it will go extinct." Kardashian also admitted to keeping a supply of BlackBerry phones with her because she was loyal to the

BlackBerry Bold The BlackBerry Bold was a line of mid-range and high-end smartphones developed by BlackBerry Limited. The lineup was launched in 2008 with the BlackBerry Bold 9000. In 2009 the Form factor (mobile phones), form factor was shrunk with the 9700 and ...

model. She has since been spotted using an iPhone instead.

Katy Perry Katheryn Elizabeth Hudson (born October 25, 1984), known professionally as Katy Perry, is an American singer, songwriter, and television personality. She is one of the List of best-selling music artists, best-selling music artists in hist ...

was also a BlackBerry user. She used the 8800 in her " Part of Me" music video, used the Bold 9780, Torch and other models in the documentary concert film '' Katy Perry: Part of Me'', was seen using the Curve 8900 and Bold 9900 and attended the launch of the Pearl Flip. In 2012, she switched to the

IPhone 4s The is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, fifth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4 and preceding the iPhone 5. It was announced on October 4, 2011, at Apple's Cupertino ...

for 2 weeks and switched back to BlackBerry for the keyboard. She has since been spotted using an iPhone instead. E. L. James wrote ''

Fifty Shades of Grey ''Fifty Shades of Grey'' is a 2011 erotic romance novel by British author E. L. James. It became the first instalment in the ''Fifty Shades'' novel series that follows the deepening relationship between a college graduate, Anastasia Steele, ...

'' on her BlackBerry. Nigerian author Stephen Buoro wrote the first draft of his debut novel on his BlackBerry.

Eric Schmidt Eric Emerson Schmidt (born April 27, 1955) is an American businessman and former computer engineer who was the chief executive officer of Google from 2001 to 2011 and the company's chairman, executive chairman from 2011 to 2015. He also was the ...

, Executive Chairman of

Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...

from 2001 to 2011, was a longtime BlackBerry user. Although smartphones running Google's Android mobile

compete with BlackBerry, Schmidt said in a 2013 interview that he uses a BlackBerry because he prefers its keyboard. The Italian criminal group known as the

'Ndrangheta The 'Ndrangheta (, , ) is a mafia-type organized crime, criminal syndicate originating from the Calabria region of Italy. Gratteri & Nicaso, ''Fratelli di Sangue'', pp. 65–68 This body, also referred to as the Commission in reference to the ...

was reported in February 2009 to have communicated overseas with the

Gulf Cartel The Gulf Cartel ( , or ''Golfos'') is a criminal syndicate, Drug cartel, drug trafficking organization, and U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization, which is perhaps one of the oldest organized crime groups in Mexico. It is currently bas ...

, a Mexican drug cartel, through the use of the BlackBerry Messenger, since the BBM Texts are "very difficult to intercept".

In popular culture

In August 2022, it was announced that a

docudrama Docudrama (or documentary drama) is a genre of television show, television and feature film, film, which features Drama (film and television), dramatized Historical reenactment, re-enactments of actual events. It is described as a hybrid of docu ...

film about the history of the BlackBerry brand, simply titled ''

'', had wrapped production. The film, written by Matt Johnson an
Matthew Miller
was adapted from the book ''Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry.'' ''

'' features Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton in the principal roles of Lazaridis and

Jim Balsillie James Laurence Balsillie (born February 3, 1961) is a Canadian businessman and philanthropist. He was the former chair and co-chief executive officer of the Canadian technology company Research In Motion (BlackBerry), which at its 2011 peak made ...

respectively, with writer/director

Johnson Johnson may refer to: People and fictional characters *Johnson (surname), a common surname in English * Johnson (given name), a list of people * List of people with surname Johnson, including fictional characters *Johnson (composer) (1953–2011) ...

portraying Doug Fregin. In September 2022, the rights to the film's distribution in the U.S. were acquired by

IFC Films Independent Film Company (formerly IFC Films) is an American film production and distribution company based in New York City, New York. It is an offshoot of IFC (U.S. TV channel), IFC, owned by AMC Networks. It mainly distributes independent fil ...

. It was released in May 2023. There was an extended three-part miniseries released in fall 2023, with each episode running 60 minutes.

Marketing

BlackBerry paid these celebrities to promote its devices: *

Alicia Keys Alicia Augello Cook (born January 25, 1981), known professionally as Alicia Keys, is an American singer and songwriter. A classically trained pianist, Keys began composing songs at the age of 12 and was signed by Columbia Records at 15. After d ...

Beyoncé Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter ( ; born September 4, 1981) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, and businesswoman. With a career spanning over three decades, she has established herself as one of the most Cultural impact of Beyoncé, ...

Black Eyed Peas The Black Eyed Peas are an American musical group formed in Los Angeles in 1995, composed of rappers will.i.am, apl.de.ap and Taboo (rapper), Taboo. Fergie (singer), Fergie was a member during the height of their popularity in the 2000s, and ...

Diplo Thomas Wesley Pentz (born November 10, 1978), known professionally as Diplo, is an American DJ and music producer. He is a co-creator and lead member of the electronic dancehall music project Major Lazer; a member of the supergroup LSD (group), ...

Indiana Jones ''Indiana Jones'' is an American media franchise consisting of five films and a prequel television series, along with games, comics, and tie-in novels, that depicts the adventures of Indiana Jones (character), Dr. Henry Walton "Indiana" Jones, ...

Jessie J Jessica Ellen Cornish (born 27 March 1988), known professionally as Jessie J, is an English singer and songwriter. Born and raised in London, she began her career on stage, aged 11, with a role in the West End musical '' Whistle Down the Wind ...

John Mayer John Clayton Mayer ( ; born October 16, 1977) is an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. He attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, but he left for Atlanta in 1997 with fellow guitarist Clay Cook, with whom he formed the short-liv ...

Martin Eberhard Martin Forest Eberhard (; born 1960) is an American engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded Tesla, Inc. (then Tesla Motors) with Marc Tarpenning in July 2003, where Eberhard was its original CEO serving until late 2007. In 2015, he was induct ...

, founder of

Tesla Motors Tesla, Inc. ( or ) is an American multinational automotive and clean energy company. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, it designs, manufactures and sells battery electric vehicles (BEVs), stationary battery energy storage devices from hom ...

Pixie Lott Victoria Louise "Pixie" Lott (born 12 January 1991) is an English singer, songwriter, and actress. Her debut studio album, ''Turn It Up (Pixie Lott album), Turn It Up'' (2009), reached number six on the UK Albums Chart and sold over 1.5 millio ...

Tara Reid Tara Donna Reid (; born November 8, 1975) is an American actress and model. Her film roles established her status as a sex symbol in the late 1990s through the early 2000s. In film, Reid is best known for her lead ensemble role as Vicky Lathum ...

* U2

References

Bibliography

* * * *
Research In Motion 2005 Annual Report
* * *

External links

* {{Authority control BlackBerry Limited smartphones C++ software Canadian brands Computer-related introductions in 1999 Goods manufactured in Canada Information appliances Pager companies Personal digital assistants Science and technology in Canada