WhereIsAtlas · Technology

BlackBerry

The smartphone giant that ruled the corporate world, then fell to touchscreens and apps

Transformed — Once the dominant smartphone maker with the iconic physical-keyboard BlackBerry, it collapsed as touchscreen rivals Apple and Android took over. BlackBerry now lives on as a software and cybersecurity company.

BlackBerry began in 1984 as Research In Motion (RIM), founded in Waterloo, Ontario, by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. Its breakthrough was a email-capable pager and, later, the BlackBerry smartphone — a device with a small physical keyboard that let businesspeople send secure email on the go. At its peak, BlackBerry was the must-have phone for executives, politicians and professionals, and its push-email technology and reputation for security made it a corporate standard.

The company dominated the smartphone market through the 2000s, but the launch of Apple's iPhone in 2007, and then Google's Android, changed everything. Touchscreens and app stores redefined what a smartphone was, and BlackBerry's physical keyboard and narrow app ecosystem could not keep up. Through the 2010s BlackBerry lost market share at a staggering rate, and by 2016 it had essentially stopped making phones.

BlackBerry's hardware was eventually licensed to other manufacturers, and in 2020 the last licensee, TCL, ended its BlackBerry-branded phones. The company itself pivoted to software and cybersecurity — renaming itself BlackBerry Limited — and continues to operate today as a cybersecurity and IoT software firm, but the iconic smartphone that defined it is gone.

Quick facts

Founded
1984 (as Research In Motion)
Based
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Signature
Physical-keyboard smartphone + secure push email
Peak
Years as the must-have corporate phone
The fall
iPhone (2007) + Android changed the market
Hardware ended
2016; last licensee TCL exits 2020
Today
BlackBerry Limited — software & cybersecurity

Sources

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