RIM BlackBerry · Research In Motion handheld · BlackBerry 850 · CrackBerry
1999 CE2022 CE
Research In Motion's thumb-typed king of corporate email, it ruled boardrooms from 1999 until the 2007 iPhone and the touchscreen took its crown.
Born
1999 CE
Died
2022 CE
Lived
23 years
Dead for
4 yrs
At its peak
~85 million subscribers at its 2012 peak
Cause of death
Replaced
Replaced by
The iPhone and Android smartphones
The Obituary
Research In Motion’s BlackBerry turned a two-way pager into the device that put corporate email in every executive’s hand. From 1999 it offered secure push email, a tactile QWERTY keyboard, and BBM messaging, and by 2012 it had around 85 million subscribers. The 2007 iPhone changed what a phone should be, and BlackBerry’s late, awkward pivot to touchscreens and its own BB10 OS failed. The company quit making phones in 2016 and shut down services for legacy devices in January 2022.
Worth remembering
Its physical QWERTY keyboard let executives thumb out email faster than anyone could on glass.
The phrase 'CrackBerry' captured how addictive its blinking message light became.
Gallery
BlackBerry Electron 8707v showing the classic full QWERTY keyboardCC0Early RIM BlackBerry R957M pager-style device from 2000rfdigitalwpg · CC BY 2.0
Watch
Rise and fall of the world's first smartphone — AMC+ / CBC documentary trailer
Sources
RIM introduced the BlackBerry in 1999; it dominated enterprise push email Wikipedia
BlackBerry ended support for legacy BlackBerry OS devices on January 4, 2022 Wikipedia
BlackBerry (RIM) handheld devices offered secure wireless push email from 1999; the BlackBerry 5810 (2002) was the first model with full phone service Britannica
The BlackBerry 5810 (2002) was an early enterprise smartphone, combining secure push email with mobile phone service. Computer History Museum
The first BlackBerry, the model 850, was released on 19 January 1999 as a two-way pager with wireless email. History.com
A graveyard tradition: leave a stone to show you came, and remembered.
Buried nearby — by shared fate or a neighbouring lifespan.
