The rise and fall of BlackBerry. The history of Research in Motion and their BlackBerry Blackberry whose company is which country

Even if you are not interested in electronics, you have probably heard the name "Blackberry". This is one of the first smartphone manufacturers that gained popularity long before the appearance of Galaxy. And despite the tough competition in the market, it still has its fans.

More about the brand

"Blackberry" is a blackberry in English. What kind of “berry” is this in the electronics market?

Many compare the success of Blackberry with the popularity of another “appetizing” brand - Apple. Devices from both manufacturers at one time blew up the market and gained an army of loyal fans who refuse to buy anything else.

The history of the famous Canadian company begins in 1984. Then it was called Research In Motion and changed it to the famous name of its brainchild BlackBerry in 2013.

The unusual name of the device is explained by the similarity of the small buttons on the keyboard to blackberries.

The first BlackBerrys were just ordinary pagers. In 2002, a model appeared with the ability to make calls, but the use of a headset was mandatory, because this phone did not have a microphone or speakers. Also a key change was the ability to work with email.

Since 2003, the company began producing models with a color display, a browser and the ability to work with package programs Microsoft Office. For a long time, the manufacturer focused on gadgets for businessmen and only in 2006 it entered the race for customers who use the phone for personal purposes and for entertainment.

Key features of the models

BlackBerry is a hybrid of a personal digital assistant and a powerful portable media player. Unlike most other smartphones, models from this manufacturer do not use someone else’s operating system, developed for other devices, but their own operating system.

The main reason why many people use BlackBerry is the ability to stay connected almost anywhere and through a variety of communication methods. The device can be used directly as a telephone, or to access email, or instant messaging using its own free service BBM.

Also, Blackberry is one of the first smartphones that gave users the opportunity to use Mobile Internet and do it with convenience and ease. This won the hearts of many buyers and brought fame to the manufacturer.

A distinctive feature of the phones is the presence of a physical QWERTY keyboard. Complete with a large screen, it ensures comfortable use of the phone for any purpose.

Blackberry offers a large number of other features that make it very useful. There are maps and GPS navigation to ensure you don't get lost. Of course, there is a camera and a multimedia player, and other attributes necessary for a modern smartphone.

Issue price and localization

To withstand fierce competition with other electronics giants in the market, new modern Blackberry models are constantly appearing. The price of the device can be either quite modest or quite impressive - from about 9 thousand rubles for the 9220 Curve White phone to 90 thousand for the powerful P’9981 Porsche Design with a stainless steel case and genuine leather elements. Brand phones can be either laconically simple or showing the status of the owner. Therefore, we can say that from a teenager to a businessman, everyone will find a suitable Blackberry.

Russia is a large market, so for the convenience of domestic users it is possible to mark Russian phones using laser engraving. Of course, the automatic transliteration function has recently become available, but it is only suitable for those who already know the arrangement of letters very well.

Popular models

Let's start getting to know them with BlackBerry Classic. Compared to the fragile modern smartphones, the gadget gives the impression of solidity and reliability, which is facilitated by the side frame from What does this Blackberry phone look like? The photo below shows it from all sides.

As the name of the smartphone states, it follows the best traditions of the brand. Namely, it boasts a comfortable and fairly large four-row keyboard. The buttons are separated from each other and produce a clear sound when pressed, so you can type even touch-sensitively and comfortably. However, this leads to the main drawback of the model - a small screen with a diagonal of 3.5 inches.

The price for this Blackberry phone ranges from 25 to 26 thousand rubles, depending on the color (white is more expensive than its classic black counterpart).

The model also boasts powerful processor and support for Android applications. Camera - 8 megapixels, front - 2.

The Passport smartphone is also one of the latest and very popular creations of Blackberry. Let's start the review by explaining the interesting name of the gadget - in shape and size it exactly matches the passport of a US citizen.

This model has an unusual shape, which made it possible to fit both a full-fledged keyboard (this time it is located on three rather than four lines) and big screen with a diagonal of 4.5 inches. But a device of this size and shape is not always convenient to hold with one hand, even for a man. This is perhaps the largest Blackberry phone. The photo below shows how it lies in your hand.

But still, the screen is the pride of the model. It is bright, with excellent color rendition. The text is clear, so reading books on it is a real pleasure.

It is impossible not to note the powerful quad-core processor with a frequency of 2.2 GHz and 3 GB of RAM. Definitely, this phone is designed for productive work and embodies the professional and business philosophy of the brand.

This Blackberry has a price that is almost 10 thousand higher than the Classic series smartphones. It starts from 33 thousand rubles for a black model and reaches 39 thousand for a red phone. Well, the white case will cost 35 thousand rubles.

Buyers' opinion

Thousands of users around the world enjoy using their Blackberry (phone). Reviews from fans of the brand are mostly positive. Most often, the main advantage is a physical keyboard, which you don’t often see on a smartphone anymore. Individualists are also flattered by the fact that they have a fairly rare phone. Also among the advantages is called good batteries And long term work on one charge, good sound, an intuitive operating system that rarely freezes, convenient work with gestures. The main disadvantage is working with applications. This is a significant disadvantage of its operating system. Users who switched from other smartphones to Blackberry do not find their favorite applications, there is no support Google Play, and Android applications do not always work correctly.

Experts' opinion

Even the most avid fans of the brand cannot help but notice that their favorite is having a hard time. Apple, Samsung, LG and other new smartphone manufacturers have damaged the popularity of Blackberry. Well-known authors and editors of electronics magazines and websites, as well as business experts, often say that the company's time is numbered. Already, its turnover largely depends on repeat sales to fans of the brand, while new buyers give preference to other manufacturers.

Of course, with so many existing owners, BlackBerry will not disappear overnight. But if you are just planning to join this brand, you should weigh the pros and cons.

Future of the company

But not everything is so pessimistic. Even the President of the United States uses a BlackBerry rather than an iPhone because his security service won't let him. After all, “blackberry” has a very powerful burglary protection system.

Therefore, companies predict a future as a manufacturer of expensive smartphones for politicians and businessmen for whom safety is important

Other types of electronics

In addition to the main direction - smartphones, in the brand's product line you will also find a Blackberry tablet. The first models came out almost simultaneously with the iPad 2 and were very popular for some time.

Called the BlackBerry PlayBook, they boast a bright and clear seven-inch screen, loud speakers and a powerful dual-core processor. However, the interface appearance The tablet, as well as a weak battery that takes quite a long time to charge, cause complaints from many users. The small number of applications from the manufacturer is inconvenient. Therefore on this moment PlayBook tablets are not popular.

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Story

The history of BlackBerry devices begins in 1984 with the founding of Research In Motion in Canada.

Since its founding, the company has specialized in the production of devices for wireless transmission data. The devices made it possible to type and send any text to other similar devices. Outwardly they resembled pagers.

In 1997, one of the engineers working for the company suggested using a new name Blackberry (blackberry). The tiny lacquered buttons on the QWERTY keyboard reminded him of this berry. The management liked the name and after a while the first devices under the BlackBerry brand appeared.

In 1999, work began on the creation of the first mobile phone.

In 2000, the 957 Proton phone appeared.

In 2004, the BlackBerry 7210 appeared with a color display. This model opened the 7000 series. Many devices in this series have Bluetooth functionality.

At the same time, the company is experimenting and releasing a BlackBerry without a QWERTY keyboard.

With the advent of the 8700 series models, BlackBerry begins to expand its range of consumers. To achieve this, new devices are equipped with a higher-quality display, expanded memory, a camera, chat and applications.

In May 2013, smartphones based on BlackBerry 10 were approved by the US Department of Defense for corporate use by department employees.

At the end of September 2016, Blackberry announced that it no longer plans to produce smartphones. It is reported that the company will focus on software development, while its Chinese partners will manufacture smartphones.

BlackBerry 8820 with built-in Wi-Fi module (designed for corporate users);
Blackberry 8830 World Edition stands out for its versatility - it supports both CDMA2000 and GSM.

2008-2009

On April 1, the official launch of BlackBerry World took place - an online store of mobile software for its smartphones.

BlackBerry Curve 8900 (updated model)
BlackBerry Bold 9000 (9000 series supports standard and adds GPS navigation function)
BlackBerry Storm 9500 (touch screen input)
BlackBerry Curve 9300

2010

BlackBerry Bold 9700 (battery power has been increased, a touchpad has been used instead of a trackball, supports HSDPA networks)
BlackBerry Torch 9800 ( touchscreen and hardware keyboard, new version of BlackBerry OS 6.0)
BlackBerry Bold 9780 (QWERTY keyboard, 5 MP camera, 512 MB of internal memory, new version of BlackBerry OS 6.0)
BlackBerry Storm2 9520 (touch display, chrome inserts in the body, BlackBerry OS 5.0)

In September, the company announced the release of a tablet computer called PlayBook.

BlackBerry Torch 9860 (touch display, new version of BlackBerry OS 7.0)
Blackberry Bold 9900 (touch display and hardware keyboard, new version of BlackBerry OS 7.0)
BlackBerry PlayBook 16/32/64 Gb - tablet PC based on the QNX real-time operating system
BlackBerry P"9981 - a smartphone released jointly with the German company Porsche Design

2013

BlackBerry Z3 (full touch, no hardware buttons, new version of BlackBerry OS 10)
BlackBerry Z10 (full touch, no hardware buttons, new version of BlackBerry OS 10)
BlackBerry Z30 (full touch, no hardware buttons, new version of BlackBerry OS 10)
BlackBerry Q5 (touch display, QWERTY keyboard, new version of BlackBerry OS 10)
BlackBerry Q10 (touch display, QWERTY keyboard, new version of BlackBerry OS 10)

2014

BlackBerry Priv (Venice) (slider, the company's first smartphone on the Android operating system with improved security)

Features of business smartphone technologies

Many BlackBerry smartphones have a full-size QWERTY keyboard, which simplifies data entry and text processing. It is possible to receive, save, edit and send attachments in the following formats: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, WordPerfect, ASCII text, HTML and ZIP, as well as graphic: JPG, BMP, GIF, PNG, TIFF.

Distinctive feature smartphones is the use of a special server (Blackberry Enterprise Server, BES) and AES encryption capabilities to protect messages from interception.

The operating principle of BlackBerry email networks is based on the fact that after registering a communicator on a network that has BlackBerry coverage, the system registers and then recognizes each individual BlackBerry communicator using an individual identification number (PIN). A unique number available for each device allows for the transmission of PIN messages (peer-to-peer system). Such messages arrive from the sending device to the receiving device instantly, and in addition, the system writes a report on the delivery of such messages. In addition, the device automatically highlights the header of PIN messages in red. The BlackBerry Messenger application also uses peer-to-peer technology, but the application's operating algorithm resembles that of well-known Internet instant messengers such as ICQ or AOL.

The intermediaries between the sender and the recipient are the network operations center

The history of the manufacturer of the first business phones

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In 2009, BlackBerry (Research in Motion) was named the fastest growing company in the world. Today it is a different company with more modest goals: to keep up with the smartphone market and stay afloat. The site's observer examined the history of BlackBerry founder Michalis Lazaridis and his Canadian company, which was once the leader in business phones.

In March 1961, a boy was born in Istanbul into the Greek-Pontian family of the Lazaridises. Michalis Lazaridis - this is what his parents called the future co-founder of RIM, today BlackBerry Limited. From Turkey, the family moved to Germany for a short time. When the boy was 5 years old, they moved to Canada, to Windsor, Ontario.

Michalis's father became a turner's apprentice, and later a master in the production of dies and other tools used in production. He even opened his own store. At this time, the boy’s mother combined the work of a dressmaker and a journalist. The family's interests were varied, which especially helped their son.

From early childhood, Michalis showed mental ability and a desire to work with his hands. At age 4, he was building complex Lego models. At the age of 8, he made a pendulum clock, and it was quite accurate. The boy really liked the model railway that was given to him. The father helped his son develop in the engineering direction, explained the principles of electricity.

At school the boy performed well. But Michalis liked it better if they called him Mike. At age 12, Mike received an award for reading every science book in the Windsor library. Mike was lucky with school; the high school program included training in workshops equipped with various machines and electronic devices, which allowed him to develop further in the engineering field. He learned to work with every instrument.

Mike's urge to invent increased. While preparing for a Canadian quiz show, he made a handy signaling device for his team to accurately determine who pressed the button first. Other teams noticed his invention and asked to make the same for them. Mike and his father found a way to make extra money and sold such devices to schools.

The money he earned was enough to pay for a year of study at the University of Waterloo, where Lazaridis entered in 1979. With his knowledge and experience, Mike was able to earn extra money fixing household appliances and pay for his studies. He began developing his own projects, and at the age of 23 he won a competition for a contract with General Motors.

For an automobile corporation, Mike developed an LED warning system in factories. For this he received $600 thousand. Feeling that he could go much further, Mike decided to drop out of school and become an entrepreneur a month before graduation. He informed the rector of the university about his intention, and he supported him.

At this time, Douglas Fregin, Mike's childhood friend, was studying at Windsor University. He also wanted to be an engineer and work on something important. Together with Mike Lazaridis and Mike Barnstein, they founded their company with money from Lazaridis, parents, friends and a grant received from the state. They decided not to move anywhere and settled in a small room on the top floor of a shopping center in Waterloo. After searching through the options, it was decided to name the company “Research in Motion”, which symbolized the tireless movement forward towards new inventions.

But luck did not come to them right away. The production of LED systems for General Motors did not go according to plan, and the contract had to be abandoned. For a long time, the friends could not move forward, there were still no grandiose ideas, and the implemented projects ultimately failed.

In 1988, RIM began developing devices for the Mobitex network technology, developed in Sweden by Televerket Radio and Ericsson. RIM was the first company to work with this protocol outside of Scandinavia. At that time, the Canadian company Cantel was about to launch a network based on this protocol. RIM developed modems and software tools for it. Later, this experience will greatly help Lazaridis’ company. However, after the launch, the Cantel network turned out to be of no use to anyone at that time - the companies did not find a use for it in the existing realities.

At the same time, Lazaridis learned that the Canadian Government Film Service was looking for film reading technology. In 1990, RIM released Digisync, a device for reading digital barcodes printed on the edges of film strips. This system has greatly simplified the life of editors, speeding up their work many times over. Digisync was very popular among professionals. Four years later, RIM received an Emmy for this device, and in 1999, an Oscar for outstanding technical achievements.

In 1990, another company became interested in creating a network on Mobitex. RAM mobile Data (later BellSouth) began building its network and hired RIM as a device developer. By the end of the year, RAM decided that they needed a pager with two-way communication. At that time there were no pagers capable of communicating directly with each other.

Lazaridis had long before been interested in the possibility of creating something similar for Email. Wired systems already existed at that time, only scientists used them. But the wireless device for transmitting information seemed to Mike the most important technology future.

James Balsillie

RIM continued to develop pagers for the Mobitex network, and Lazaridis himself was already working on the idea of a network PDA. In the early 90s, no one believed in such devices. Many companies have conducted research in this direction, but have not seen suitable conditions. Mike wanted to get ahead of everyone. But for this he needed funds.

James Balsillie, a Harvard graduate, worked for Sutherland and Schultz. After collaboration with RIM, they saw serious potential in it and decided to buy it. James had to complete the deal by finally convincing RIM management. But Lazaridis refused to sell. However, he paid attention to Balsillie’s abilities.

In 1992, Sutherland and Schultz was acquired by another company, and James was asked to leave with compensation. Mike decided that such a person would be very useful to them. He contacted James and offered to invest $250 thousand for a third of the company, while receiving a reduced salary. Balsillie agreed, but had to mortgage his house to raise the full amount in cash.

When Balsillie joined RIM, the company had 14 employees. This was clearly not enough to implement Lazaridis’ ambitious ideas. In order to concentrate on developing its device, RIM abandoned all third-party contracts.

To prove that you have wireless devices there is a future, in 1996 RIM introduced its Inter@ctive Pager 900. The device allowed messaging without a wired connection and fit in the hand. Still, it was very far from ideal; it was impossible to carry it in a pocket due to its weight, so the device did not work commercially.

By 1997, together with Intel, they developed a new, more compact and convenient device - the RIM 950. It was no longer just a pager, but a device with email that was constantly connected to the network. The keyboard has been redesigned for thumb typing. And on one AA battery the RIM 950 could work for 3 weeks.

Lazaridis continued to hit the wall of misunderstanding on the part of companies and customers. RIM was on the verge of shutting down. But at the last minute, Mike managed to convince BellSouth management with his presentation that they needed to continue expanding the Mobitex network, and not sell it. BellSouth agreed to invest in the network. RIM was saved and also attracted the attention of IBM, Panasonic and other large companies to its project.

Ordinary users still did not understand how the RIM 950 differed from pagers. To convey the essence of the device to potential buyers, RIM hired Lexicon Branding. For Lexicon specialists, the main element that could distinguish the 950 from pagers was the keyboard. The keys looked like berries. In the end, we settled on “BlackBerry” with a fairly bright sound and an emphasis on advanced functionality for text messages.

In 1999, RIM launched BlackBerry wireless secure email service throughout North America using Mobitex networks. Balsillie sent representatives from RIM to give away free RIM 950s in Canada and the United States to people who qualified as early adopters—celebrities and enthusiasts. They began to be used by police officers, firefighters and ambulance workers. Then the devices flooded Wall Street. At first they were distributed to ordinary employees of companies, but gradually people in leadership positions drew attention to the popularity of BlackBerry. This is how RIM’s original “guerrilla” marketing campaign took place.

In the same year 1999, RIM entered the NASDAQ stock exchange, becoming a public company and receiving $255 million. With a new supply of funds, the company continued to seize the moment, improving its developments. At that time, BlackBerry had already turned into a status gadget, popular among people with a huge number of fans. Blackberries were distributed at conferences, and professionals from various fields began to use them. Demand grew at a tremendous pace, the company barely had time to produce devices, extending contracts for the supply of necessary parts and assembly.

September 11, 2001, during the events that took place, when mobile networks in New York and Washington failed, BlackBerry devices continued to work through Mobitex, so employees in the Twin Towers area emergency services could communicate with each other, and those inside the buildings sent messages to people outside. Lazaridis has always focused heavily on security and reliability, which ultimately brought BlackBerry to the attention of politicians and government officials in such a tragic way. After this disaster, RIM received an order to supply 3 thousand BlackBerry to the US government. Washington appreciated the capabilities of Canadian development.

In the wake of BlackBerry's popularity, NTP sued RIM for illegally using patents on wireless email technology. Lazaridis denied the accusations, citing the fact that he never knew about NTP, and RIM developed its technologies independently much earlier. However, NTP was able to prove that its patents appeared even earlier and demanded that sales of BlackBerry in the United States be banned. At this point, connections in the government helped - the ban on BlackBerry was asked to be postponed, because the country's leadership used these devices. In total, the trial lasted 5 years. In the end, RIM paid $612 million to the Virginia holding, and they dropped all their charges.

In parallel with the litigation, the company continued to grow, gradually improving its devices. Lazaridis and Balsillie decided to focus primarily on the corporate sector, believing that other users would follow. In 2006, RIM released the first smartphone with a camera and other media features, but remained focused on communication features for professionals. The BlackBerry Pearl family was quite popular, and new models were released until 2010.

In 2007, RIM was valued at $42 billion, BlackBerry sales continued to climb in 120 countries, and the audience numbered 9 million people. And this year Apple released the first iPhone. Steve Jobs relied primarily on software part, while Mike Lazaridis considered that technical features, long battery life and a comfortable tactile keyboard were more important.

Analysts note that already at this moment RIM began to lose. At the start of sales of the new competitor, BlackBerry occupied a much larger percentage of the market. But Apple is targeting a wide audience, primarily ordinary users. And the iPhone began to win the market, thanks to its more advanced software. RIM was still selling much larger BlackBerrys, but was late with updates.

Lazaridis believed in limitations; he believed that the company and its products must be developed within these limitations. He was worried about how to fit all the controls into a small size, how to compress and fit all the data within the limitations of the network channel, how to increase the operating time. BlackBerry's design was driven by everything that Apple chose to ignore. Conservatism began to work against RIM.

The first versions of the Apple smartphone did not damage BlackBerry; on the contrary, sales grew. In November 2008, after delays, RIM released the Bold 9000, which received overall positive reviews, but the applications left much to be desired. A little earlier in the same year, Android OS appeared.

At the same time, RIM released its answer to the iPhone - Storm. It was a smartphone without a keyboard and with a touch screen, reminiscent of an Apple device. It had some technical innovations and convenient communication functions, but the operating system, according to critics and users, was much inferior to the product of Steve Jobs' company. Sales of Storm were a disaster.

In 2009, RIM remained a large growth company that could defend its position. But the prevailing culture in the company prevented this. While RIM was fighting for CEOs and politicians around the world, Apple and Google began to gain the trust of their subordinates. Organizations have allowed their employees to bring personal devices to work. And they brought with them an iPhone or an Android smartphone.

In 2010, RIM, with support from AT&T, released Torch, which suffered the same fate as Storm. The operating system and applications were inferior compared to the iPhone. RIM decided it was time to move to a new OS that could compete in the changing market.

This was the last chance to turn the situation around. Lazaridis and Balsillie felt that new technologies and specialists were needed. RIM acquired several companies, including QNX Software Systems. It was on the basis of the QNX operating system that the BlackBerry Tablet OS was created. In 2011, there was another failure - the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet sold poorly and received negative reviews, which is why prices had to be sharply reduced.

BlackBerry's popularity declined sharply in the US, Canada and the UK, but continued to grow in developing countries where people simply could not use all the features of Apple smartphones due to less developed infrastructure. In addition, not many people can afford an iPhone in these countries. That's why they bought BlackBerry there more often. Today, even in these countries, BlackBerry is losing consumer interest.

For a long time, Mike Lazaridis and James Balsillie shared the CEO position between themselves. Mike handled the technical side, and James handled the commercial side. But in the large corporation that RIM has become, this principle no longer helps. Decisions had to be made with the consent of both parties, which greatly slowed down the development process and affected the performance of employees.

All major electronics brands have their ups and downs. The BlackBerry company has recently been in a state of decline, which has now been somewhat slowed down and losses have been reduced, but there is no talk of profitability and former popularity yet. Most users who are somehow interested in gadgets associate BlackBerry with high-quality and reliable business-class devices. The company has always been famous for a lot of its own developments in terms of secure exchange of mail and messages with the corresponding proprietary infrastructure for encrypting the data of its users. These features have repeatedly become a problem for distribution in some countries and have been criticized. BlackBerry products were most popular in North America and Western Europe, mainly among corporate users. In our latitudes there have always been problems with the full implementation of BlackBerry services, and simply with the availability of the devices themselves. Nowadays, buying a BlackBerry smartphone is absolutely not a problem, but the specificity makes the product quite niche.

How it all began

Manufacturing company BlackBerry smartphones, which until 2013 was called Research in Motion (RIM) , was founded in 1984 student at the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada) Mike Lazaridis of Turkish origin. Initially the company was engaged engineering activities in the field of devices for wireless data transmission, and in the early 1990s began collaborating with Ericsson and RAM Mobile Data, providing technologies for wireless text transmission in paging networks. It is not surprising that the company's first device was a pager. Inter@ctive pager 900 (Bullfrog) with a QWERTY keyboard and the ability to send messages in 1996:

It was followed by a more compact Inter@ctive pager 950 (Leapfrog):

RIM released the first device under the BlackBerry brand in 1997 at the instigation of Lexicon Branding, which launched the Pentium and Zune brands. The keyboard of those RIM devices was associated with Lexicon Branding with blackberries, that’s what they called it. The first smartphone was BlackBerry 957 Proton, it was equipped with a QWERTY keyboard, a black and white display and supported calls only with a headset connected. Worked on the first version of Blackberry OS:

The evolutionary development was the BlackBerry 5810. It was released in 2002 and supported all functions mobile phone, text input, web surfing, push e-mail and so on. It already worked on BlackBerry OS 3.x with Java support:

Further development

2004 was marked by several events in the history of BlackBerry: a new version was released BlackBerry OS 4.x, which supported color screens, acquired a more convenient browser, a Gallery application and many other innovations. It was used until 2008 and received several significant updates during this period. The same year was marked by increased popularity, the first million devices sold, experiments in producing devices without a QWERTY keyboard, and the first color smartphone BlackBerry 7210:

Here it is worth mentioning the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 model, released in 2006. BlackBerry went to the masses: it used a simplified keyboard, a trackball, a built-in camera and a music player:

And the BlackBerry Curve 8300, released in 2007, which used a trackball and a QWERTY keyboard, which is considered one of the most convenient:

In 2008, BlackBerry OS 5.x was released, and the company began its most successful years of existence. A new version OS brought support touch screens, appeared his own file manager, wireless synchronization of contacts, BlackBerry Maps, support for Gmail, GPS navigation and a lot of other innovations. Then a very successful model BlackBerry Bold 9000 came out:

And the company's first touch model - BlackBerry Storm 9500:

In 2009 RIM sold more than 50 million smartphones worldwide and was second only to Nokia in this indicator, and in terms of financial growth it overtook all competitors and in 2010 crossed the mark of 100 million mobile terminals sold. Opened in the same year mobile store BlackBerry World applications.

In 2010, BlackBerry OS 6.x was released, in which the interface was once again updated, browser and integrated search and native application for Youtube. Starting with this version, integration with social services Facebook, Twitter, BlackBerry Messenger, and LinkedIn appeared. The company is experimenting with form factors, in particular the BlackBerry Torch 9800 QWERTY slider with a touch screen appears:

And the QWERTY clamshell BlackBerry Style 9670:

BlackBerry OS 7.x released in 2011 and did not bring any radical changes, support appeared in it creating Wi-Fi access points, NFC modules and radio plus other small changes. A number of models were released on it, in particular the BlackBerry Bold 9930:

Dramatic changes and the beginning of a dark streak

With the growing popularity of devices running Android and iOS, as well as a relatively new class of devices in the form of tablets, the company decided that something radically needed to change. Back in 2010, RIM bought the QNX real-time OS , on the basis of which they made BlackBerry Tablet OS. Used it BlackBerry's first and only Playbook tablet:

It was equipped with a 7-inch IPS screen 1024x600, dual-core processor TI OMAP4430 with clock frequency 1 GHz and 1 GB of RAM. It was not particularly popular: the number of native applications was very small, and emulation Android applications did not work adequately. RIM shares fell five times over the year, which the board of directors was not at all happy about, the company's founder and CEO Mike Lazaridis left his post, and his place was taken by COO Thorsten Heyns, who previously worked at Siemens.

On January 30, 2013, BlackBerry OS 10 was announced, which was a modified version BlackBerry Tablet OS, and RIM was renamed BlackBerry. It released the BlackBerry Q10 with a QWERTY keyboard and the first fully touchscreen Z10:

Despite quite attractive smartphones and a number of interesting ideas in the new OS, the company’s financial indicators were rapidly falling, the number of current models was declining. In the summer of 2013, attempts were made to sell the company, and by the fourth quarter, options were being considered to move exclusively into the corporate segment. In November Thorsten Heyns steps down from his post and is replaced by John Chen, a former head of the company Sybase, a software company. He stated that the company does not intend to abandon production and that radical changes in strategy will be made. Under his leadership, the company released the BlackBerry Z3, a budget device aimed at developing countries:

And the exotic BlackBerry Passport with a square display and a QWERTY keyboard, which also doubles as a touchpad:

In the future, the company plans to release custom smartphones annually. Meanwhile, the tenth version of the OS receives periodic updates, and the increasingly seamless operation of Android applications plays into its favor. At the moment, almost all applications up to Android 4.3 are supported. The company managed to reduce its losses, but it is too early to talk about the future fate of the company.