A Brief History of BlackBerry
2 Dec 2008, 10:26 amBlackBerry devices have been around since 1999, but they remained somewhat obscure until well after the new millenium. BlackBerry’s global popularity really started to surge around 2004. In November of 2004, Research In Motion announced that there were over two million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide. This was up from one million earlier in the year. It took five years to get the first million, and then 10 months to get the second. The third came just six months after that, in May of 2005. Less than a year later, subscribers totaled 5 million. However, in the past two years, RIM has added another 9 million subscribers, and now boast 14 million subscribers. In less than three-and-a-half years, 13 million people have purchased a BlackBerry.
The reason for the monumental growth is obvious, the first model, the 850, was little more than a mobile pager, although it did integrate with existing enterprise email. But 1998 was a different era, most consumers didn’t really have a need for a mobile email device. Mobile phones weren’t really that big in the consumer market at that time, so the demand for a wireless PDA was expectedly low. But it did provide corporate data access, an organiser, calendar, paging, and wireless Internet, so it was of great use to businesses who wanted a more mobile workforce. In 2005, PC World called the 850 the 14th greatest gadget of the past 50 years.
RIM’s next line of BlackBerry devices, the 857/957 series, looked more like the current models we see today.
The pager-style was dropped for a more PDA-style look. The display was more than doubled, going form 6 or 8 lines to 16 or 20. It also added a rechargeable lithium battery. The onboard memory doubled from 4 MB flash to 8MB flash, and from 512 KB SRAM (memory) to a full megabyte. Rim also added the ability to sync up to 10 personal and business emails. The next upgrade was to the 5810. This the beginning of further integration of the BlackBerry to corporate data.
Almost all through the 5000 and 6000 series BlackBerry models, RIM catered soley to the GSM market. However, with the rise of Sprint and Verizon in the U.S., demand increased for a CDMA version. In the second quarter of 2003, RIM released the BlackBerry 6750 for Verizon Wireless. The device wasn’t a huge upgrade over the existing GSM 6000 models, though it did carry 10 MB of onboard memory. The device specifics weren’t the important part, though. At the time of the 6750’s release, Verizon Wireless was the USA’s No. 1 wireless communications provider, so widespread availability of the devices was the key to future growth of BlackBerry.
The CDMA releases continued in the 7200-series with the 7250, which was released through Sprint and Verizon. It was the first BlackBerry model to feature Bluetooth capabilities. At this point, Cingular had bought AT&T and was the No. 1 wireless communications provider in America. However, with both Sprint and Verizon using CDMA, the demand for these devices was still great.
At this point, devices were being made for both GSM and CDMA networks, though GSM still saw more models. In the 7200-series, the 7210, 7220, 7230, 7280, and 7290 were created for GSM, while only the 7250 was CDMA-compatible. The 7270 was actually a WLAN device, and did not operate on a traditional cellular network. It was meant for data purposes and VoIP calls. The 7500-series was made for Motorola’s iDEN network, and featured the signature two-way radio – probably the only feature that has kept the iDEN network operational through today. The 7700-series was 2/3 GSM, with the 7730 and the 7780, with CDMA carriers getting the 7750.
The full QWERTY keyboard was the signature of the BlackBerry. However, some people found the device a bit bulky – especially consumers who were used to traditional candybar and flip cellphone models. And so RIM released the 7100t through T-Mobile in late 2004. It’s calling card was the SureType keyboard, which assigned two letters to each key. This reduced the device’s size to pass the “shirt pocket test.” The intention: Blur the lines between work and life. The 7130e was a similar model later released for CDMA networks. There was also an iDEN model.
SureType ended up taking off in 2006 with the release of the BlackBerry 8100 Pearl. The big change here was
the switch from the side scroll wheel to a trackball. The Pearl was small enough to begin this experiment, as anyone could operate the trackball while holding the device in one hand, much like people used the side scroll wheel with one hand.
The original Pearl was just for GSM networks, but in late 2007, the Pearl 8130 was released on CDMA networks. Shortly thereafter a second Pearl was released, the 8120, this time with WiFi and GPS.
Whilst the Pearl was breaking all sales records, there was another wave of full-sized BlackBerrys hitting the market: The 8700 series. At this time we were seeing a prolification of other
smartphones hit the market, so there was more competition. RIM responded with a sleek-looking device, which was released in November of 2005, when subscribership was between 3 and 5 million. The 8700-series along with the 8100-series, greatly contributed to RIM’s climb to 5 million units, which was accomplished in March of 2006.
There were really three models of the 8700, though various lower-case letters added for each specific run (for a total of eight runs of the 8700 series). There was one for GSM networks with EDGE, one for GSM networks without EDGE (UMTS in the UK, Italy, Hong Kong, and Singapore, W-CDMA in Japan), and one for CDMA networks with EVDO.
So RIM hit the 5 million mark in March of ‘06. Later that year, they prepped for another series. And by February 12, 2007, the 8800 was released. This hit the world’s major GSM carriers, and was the first full-sized BlackBerry to feature the now ubiquitous trackball. A few months later, Verizon picked up the 8830, which is basically the same model for CDMA. And just a few months after that, the 8820 was announced. Glancing at the specs, it seems almost exactly the same as the 8800, right down to running on GSM networks. However, it added WiFi, a feature we’ve seen appear in more RIM devices lately.
Even though the 8100, 8700 and 8800 series contained more consumer-friendly features, they were still a
bit lacking in that department. To combat this, RIM delivered the 8300 Curve in early May 2007. This helped RIM advance further into the consumer market. In September 2007 RIM announce the Curve 8320, complete with camera, media player and WiFi.
In 2008 RIM introduced a new flagship phone, the 9000 Bold. The Bold introduced true high speed data with
3G compaitbility and further refinement of the user interface, appealing to both the enterpise and consumer market.
2007 and 2008 also saw the launch of BlackBerry’s greaterst competitor, the Apple iPhone, along with a multitude of offerings from HTC, Palm, Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson.
To bolster the new Bold in it’s fight against the onslaught of new competitors, RIM also launced in 2008 the 8220 Pearl Flip, a revised Pearl with a flip form factor, larger screen, wifi access and arevised interface along the lines of the new Bold.
With the iPhone 3G taking the crown as the biggest selling handset in mid 2008, RIM launched another new model, the Storm, complete with a touch screen and 3G compatribilty to tackel the iPhone head on.
So will RIM further blur the lines between consumer device and business tool? Or will they create
separate entities that together keep them atop the smartphone/PDA world? I guess we’ll just have to wait for the next chapter in the history of the BlackBerry to be written.
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