subject: History of the BlackBerry [print this page] When the BlackBerry first made its appearances, it was thought as the latest and greatest in phone history, giving busy executives the ability to have a 'smart' phone at their use.
When we think of BlackBerry, most don't recall its first appearance in 1999, when it came out as a simple pager. It was not until the early part of the 21st century that people took notice of this device. By 2004, BlackBerry had over two million subscribers worldwide, up from one million the prior year. After 2004, numbers escalated to 5 million and now 14 million. No wonder so many call the BlackBerry the CrackBerry as they are addicted to their phone.
BlackBerry gained its greatest popularity due to not only being a phone but also a phone/PDA. Its popularity grew due to its ability to send and receive push Internet e-mail as well as its large array of messaging features. Features included auto-text, auto-correct, text prediction, language support, keyboard shortcuts, text emoticons, push email, push Facebook and Myspace notifications, push Ebay notifications, push instant messaging and more.
Yes, the BlackBerry started out as a simple mobile pager. In 1999 pagers were all the rage and cell phones were still making their way into the public domain.
The next series of systems was the BlackBerry 857/957. The phone looked like a PDA, the display was increased in size from 6-8 lines to 16 or 20. More memory was added and the phone had the ability to sync up to 10 personal and business emails.
The 857/957 was followed by the 5000 and 6000 series. RIM, the company who owns BlackBerry, was at the time catering to the GSM market and industry. But demand was increasing for CDMA versions so in late 2003, RIM released the BlackBerry 6750 for Verizon Wireless. The phone itself wasn't much different than GSM 6000 models. The biggest change was that Verizon was the nation's No. 1 wireless provider; therefore designing a phone for their systems gave BlackBerry a huge boost in notoriety and sales.
RIM continued to create CDMA versions of their phone with the 7200 and 7250 series. These models were the first to feature Bluetooth capabilities. To maintain a presence for both AT&T (which was GSM compatible) and Sprint/Verizon - CDMA compatible, RIM continued making phones for both systems. The 7210, 7220, 7230, 7280 and 7290 were created for GSM while the 7250 was the only CDMA-compatible phone. The 7500 was made for Motorola's iDEN network and featured a two-way radio.
BlackBerry stepped up their notoriety again with the design of the full QWERTY keyboard. While some people found the keyboard to be bulky (remember, cell phones were growing smaller and smaller in size at this point), those who wanted the ability to type quickly on their device appreciated it. Trying to reduce the size, RIM released the SureType keyboard, which assigned two letters to each key. This helped reduce the device size a bit. SureType took off in 2006 with the release of the BlackBerry Pearl. The Pearl went from the side scroll wheel to a trackball. One could operate the device with one hand. Pearl was originally released for GSM networks but in 2007 was released for CDMA networks as well.
Then came the 8000 series. More smartphones were hitting the market by the time the 8000 series came out, making competition high. The 8700, 8800, 8830 and 8820 were all released. This series contained many consumer-friendly features but was missing the popular camera. RIM intentionally created their 8000 series without cameras so they could be used by professionals in places like courtrooms. But with the release of the Curve, the camera was included as was WiFi.
BlackBerry released the Bold in 2008 and is preparing to release a new series, The Torch 9800 on August 12, 2010.
Is BlackBerry still the latest and greatest? This may just depend on the model, year and person.
