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For most of us, the BlackBerry is a relatively new revelation. While the devices have been around since 1999, they really didn’t start gaining traction until the early 21st century. And even then, BlackBerry’s popularity really started its surge recently. 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. So yes, that means that 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. So in less than three-and-a-half years, 13 million people have gotten their hands on BlackBerrys.
Just a pager
The reason for the monumental growth is easily explainable. See, the first model was the one pictured, the 850. As you can see, it was little more than a mobile pager. It did integrate with existing enterprise email, though. Still, 1998 was still in the era of the AOL Internet, so most consumers didn’t really have a need for a mobile email device. Cell phones in general weren’t even big in the consumer market at that point, so the need for a wireless PDA was expectedly lacking. But it did provide corporate data access, an organizer, 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.
Funny bit: The 850 actually ran on two AA batteries. Kind of unfathomable in our wireless era, right?
An Academy Award?
I actually didn’t know this — and wouldn’t have been able to find it — had I not attended the Best New Smartphone Handsets & Devices seminar at CTIA’s Smartphone Summit. Susan Payne, RIM’s vice president of BlackBerry Connect, told us that Research In Motion had actually won a technical Oscar. She didn’t get into further details, nor did I think it an appropriate follow-up at the time. Thanks to the Internet, though, looking it up was a breeze. And yes, that claim is true. RIM did win a technical achievement award, though I’m not sure that the got one of the statues for it:
- For refining and further developing electronic time-code slates.
Lazaridis is currently the company’s co-CEO and president.
Progressing to the 857/957 series
RIM’s next line of BlackBerry devices looked a little more like the models we see today. The pager-style was ditched for a more PDA-style look. The display was increased more than twofold, going form 6 or 8 lines to 16 or 20. It also added the rechargeable lithium battery. The onboard memory doubled from 4 MB flash to 8MB flash, and from 512 KB SRAM (memory) to a full megabyte. And really, other than the ability to sync up to 10 personal and business emails, that was it for the upgrades. However, RIM definitely found the model that would work in the future.
Their next upgrade was to the 5810. This is when we started to see some further integration of the BlackBerry. There weren’t many
Strange sidenote: The device page for the 5810 notes a full-color screen. However, Wikipedia’s list of BlackBerry models notes that full color didn’t appear until the 7210. Since I don’t have, nor do I have access to a 6000-series BlackBerry, can someone fill me in here?
GSM in a CDMA country
Almost all through the 5000- and 6000-series BlackBerry models, RIM catered to the GSM market. However, with the rise of Sprint and Verizon in the U.S., demand increased for a CDMA version. So 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 nation’s No. 1 wireless communications provider, so breadth of availability was the height of the issue.
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 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.
SureType takes off
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.
Of course, SureType ended up taking off in 2006 with the release of the BlackBerry 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, we heard of T-Mobile’s plans for a second Pearl release, this time with WiFi and GPS. AT&T actually picked up the device first, though T-Mobile plans to release theirs this week.
8000-series BlackBerrys
Ah, but before we got caught up in the Pearl madness, there was another wave of full-sized BlackBerrys hitting the market: The 8700 series. At this point, we were seeing a ton 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. Surely, the 8700-series aided in RIM’s climb to 5 million, 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.
And finally, the Curve
Even though the 87- and 8800 series contained more consumer-friendly features, they were still a bit lacking in that department. Specifically, a camera was and had been missing from BlackBerrys from the get-go. It’s been said that RIM opted not to include cameras because a number of professions disallow them (say, in a courtroom), or some bosses don’t want them on their employees’ phones. Of course, these claims have been challenged, with people arguing that this was RIM intentionally holding back features.
RIM delivered the camera, introducing the Curve in early May 2007. The helped RIM bleed further into the consumer market. In September of that year, T-Mobile added the Curve (8320), complete with WiFi. And, as we know, RIM developed a CDMA Curve, which was recently picked up by Verizon, Sprint, Telus, and Bell.
9000 series and beyond
With the 8800-series being over a year old, it seems time for RIM to introduce a new flagship phone. We could be seeing their 9000-series as soon as August. We’ve seen patent applications for a slider device, a touchscreen, and an angular keyboard. All of these features likely won’t make it onto a single 9000-series model, but it does give one the sense that RIM has big things planned for its next line of devices.
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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21 Comments ↓
Nice post. Pretty accurate, too!
Actually, there was a predecessor to the RIM 850. The orginal Inter@ctive pager was a clamshell design 4-5x thicker and heavier than the 850. I remember calling it a brick or garage door opener (photo found online at SmartComputing.com http://tinyurl.com/4akl54)
But I’ve carried (and still own both antique models)and what irks me today is that I can’t manage to find some of the original audible alerts they had in them to utilize them in today’s models. Their chirp is unmatched today!
GREAT post! It was bitter-sweet reading the history. Sweet, because it’s exciting to see the technology and the inovation, and Bitter to remind me of how old I am AND how far UP the timeline my 7100i is. MAN I can’t wait until the Curve drops on Sprint tomorrow!
Reminds me of my Tandy 100 laptop. So cool to take on planes and confuse people.
FYI, 6000 and 7000 series blackberry devices were launched at roughly the same time. the 6000 had a smaller screen than the 7000 but often sported similar features (see 6210 & 7210).
I do believe color was only introduced in the 7230.
I actually still own and personally use a blackberry 6210. Easily the toughest cellular device I’ve ever used.
Another huge turning point, the 6210 and 7210 were the first blackberry devices to sport voice…. might want to mention that.
I was one of the early RIM developers. At the time of the 850 there was also a 950. The difference being the network that it ran upon (the radio transceiver inside). The 850 became the original BlackBerry - it was just rebranded and loaded with newer software, and I believe a bit more memory.
Yes, they did run on 2 AA batteries - they were also really slow. You could often have lag as long as hours. When the first browsers came out for them it was an enormous breakthrough though. That is what led up to the blackberry of today.
IIRC, the processor on these old devices was an intel 386!
I have a 7290 color, I think you skipped a few models.
This is the best device I’ve ever had, work was going to give me a palm and I declined, (not just blind love, I’ve used them before, didn’t like).
The 850 and 950 both ran on a single AA battery — I just checked the one in my drawer. And they would usually run for three to four weeks without needing to be charged.
As for Warren’s comment about them being slow, an hour long lag in getting email wouldn’t be due to the speed of hand held device, it would be due to network coverage problems. The average delivery time for messages to a 950 was well under a minute.
Great post! I’ll will be linking to this post for sure.
I’ve used almost used every BlackBerry device RIM has produced for the Mobitex and GSM networks and have experience with devices created for the other networks. The history delivered in this article is fairly accurate. Here are a few other tidbits of information. The 950 was the first version of the BlackBerry released. It was actually born as the RIM Inter@ctive Pager 950. It ran on the Mobitex network, which were operated by Cantel AT&T Wireless (Rogers) in Canada and BellSouth Wireless Data in the US at that time. It ran on ONE alkaline AA battery that lasted about 3 weeks. The 850 came out shortly after the 950 was released and ran on the DataTAC network, which were operated by Bell Mobility in Canada and American Mobile in the US at that time. It also ran on one Alkaline AA or a rechargeable NiMh battery, but was lucky to last one week on a battery or charge. The next series, the 857/957, was a large screen version of the 850/950 and used a rechargeable NiMh battery. Of course the Mobitex version, 957, had much better battery life. The reason was that the radio on the DataTAC device consumed more power when not receiving or sending. The 5810 was the first BlackBerry device that incorporated phone functions, used Java code, and ran on the GSM network. To use the phone function, a wired headset was required. The 5810 was the same shape and size as a 957, and had a monochrome display. Colour did not appear on BlackBerrys till the 7xxx series. There were two form factors in the 6xxx series: the 67xx models were similar to the 857/957 with the large monochrome display and full keyboard; and the 62xx and 6510 models had a monochrome display that was about 3/4 size of the 67xx models. This display shape is the one currently used on full keyboard BlackBerrys. The 62xx models only ran on the GSM networks, the 6510 on the Nextel network, and the 67xx models ran on the GSM or CDMA networks. The 6750 was the first BlackBerry that ran on CDMA2000 1X network. The 62xx models were the first BlackBerry whose shell was not “business black”, but was blue, which earned it the nickname “BlueBerry”. Not only did the 7xxx series have the first colour displays, but the 71xx models came in a variety of colours and shapes depending on the carrier. The rest of the 7xxx models came in black or blue. The 870x series also came in different colours and shapes depending on the model and carrier.
The Blackberry is the iPhone for people who need something for work. The iPhone is useless for work. It does look cool tho.
I miss my 850. It just worked and worked well. The pager service coverage was better than any other (I used it in flight one time, yes I know FAA frowns on that). It did one thing and it did it perfectly, email. Sure it had contancts and calendar and even a sync that didn’t duplicate every entry like freaking palms.
Very intrusting to see the history of he black berry, and to think it all started with being nothing more then a mere pager. What I also found very fascinating is you could down lode software to your BlackBerry that makes the BlackBerry icons look like the iPhone icons, so then you would have an iBerry how cool is that. The idea of fusing two phones into one is unheard of so then you would have the power of both worlds a Mac and a PC.
What I also found surprising is when they almost did not want to put a camera on the BlackBery.
[...] its days as an uber-pager to the just-short-of-the-iPhone it is today. Two AA’s? Seriously?read more | digg story addthis_url = [...]
Just to add a bit to the history of the earliest devices, the original Interactive Pager was internally nicknamed ‘bullfrog’ and the 850 was referred to as the ‘leapfrog’.
[...] The History Of The Blackberry [...]
I still use my Blackberry 6750 it’s durable and reliable I plan on using it several more years
I carried a BB 950 (well several, actually) from early 2000 until my IT staff pried it from my hands when the BES no longer supported it.
I would still carry it today if I could. It was a near perfect device - it did one thing extremely well.
And yes, it used a single AA battery. The 80386 was actually powered by a small lithium battery in the device. The AA charged the internal battery.
[...] may want to subscribe to my feed or subscribe to us on Twitter!A while back, we wrote up a quick history of the BlackBerry. In it we chronicled our favorite device from its infancy as a pager-like unit to the full-blown [...]
[...] to BerryReview, where Ronen is chronicling the history of RIM. It goes back further than our own history of the BlackBerry, touching on the company’s formation in 1984 and all of their pre-BlackBerry inventions. [...]
I wanna know the technical know-how of Blackberry. Its very urgent & important for me as I am working in Aircel as a telecom engineer.
regards
Gaurav - 9311125353
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