BlackBerry
BlackBerry, originally known for its secure wireless communication devices, was developed by Research in Motion, which created its first wireless device in 1999. The brand gained recognition in the early 2000s for its innovative smartphones that combined typical mobile phone features with enhanced capabilities, such as email and instant messaging, alongside functions of personal digital assistants, cameras, and media players. The distinctive bulbous keyboard design of BlackBerry devices enabled easier typing, contributing to their popularity, but also led to the phenomenon known as "BlackBerry thumb," referring to thumb pain from excessive use. Security features, particularly strong encryption, made BlackBerry a favored choice among government officials and those requiring confidential communication. The brand's stature was further amplified by notable users, including Barack Obama, who famously used a BlackBerry during his presidency. Despite experiencing a decline in market share due to competition from Apple's iPhone and Google’s Android, BlackBerry devices had a lasting impact on communication expectations, fostering a culture of constant connectivity. Today, while BlackBerry smartphones may no longer dominate the market, the legacy of their influence continues to shape how people interact and communicate in an increasingly digital world.
BlackBerry
Definition: A popular wireless-device brand based out of Ontario, Canada, and known for its smartphones
After creating their first wireless device in 1999, BlackBerry’s parent company Research in Motion developed the first-generation smartphones for which the brand is known. While these phones offered typical features of mobile phones, they also enabled users to send emails and instant messages, and served as personal digital assistants, cameras, and media players. Smartphones expanded cell phone capabilities, creating a robust market for the product while changing expectations about the pace of communication in the twenty-first century.
BlackBerry devices have significantly altered wireless communication. Initially named for the arrangement of its keypad, as the keys of a BlackBerry are arranged in bulbous clusters, resembling the fruit. By providing a full keyboard, users were more easily able to type out messages than on a standard cell phone. The ease of communication was then tempered by “BlackBerry thumb,” a term referring to thumb pain caused by excessive use of the device.
In addition to facilitating typed communication, BlackBerry devices are particularly known for their encryption features. These allow messages to be sent and received under high security. This secrecy has endeared the phones to government officials and drug dealers alike. The phone, while already a prominent player among wireless devices of the early 2000s, gained further popularity through Barack Obama’s use of his BlackBerry during his 2008 campaign and subsequent presidency. The phone has also been adopted for use among federal agents and police officers.
The addictive nature of BlackBerry use earned it the name “CrackBerry” among users of the device. This term encapsulates the phone’s effect during the early 2000s, which was to create and expand the market for such versatile wireless devices. Globally appealing, BlackBerry created nearly 100 million devices between 2000 and 2010. Although BlackBerry initially held the bulk of the market for smartphones, its success invited competition. Google’s Android and Apple’s iPhone, both released in 2007, largely cut into BlackBerry’s market share with their new and highly capable smartphones.
BlackBerry in the 2010s
BlackBerry's popularity peaked in 2013, with 85 million users worldwide, but the company was already struggling to keep up with Google and Apple, whose phones had newer and more powerful operating systems and extensive libraries of third-party applications. That year, BlackBerry introduced a new, heavily reworked version of their operating system, BlackBerry 10, but this did not do as much to improve sales as the company had hoped; in 2015, BlackBerry began releasing Android-based smartphones alongside its BB10-based devices. Nevertheless, in 2016 the number of BlackBerry users worldwide was 23 million, a fraction of what it had been just three years before. BlackBerry announced in September of that year that the company would be outsourcing the design and production of its handsets to third parties, rather than designing the phones in-house as was previously the case.
Impact
The early 2000s saw the ascent and decline of the BlackBerry. Still, while BlackBerry smartphones no longer enjoyed market dominance, and as smartphone usage increased, the brand continued to attract new users. Perhaps less noticeably, but more pervasively, BlackBerry devices have rewired the expectations of communication. Cell phones created the expectation of constant social accessibility, and smartphones expanded this expectation, offering access to email and the Internet. The capability to be always connected cultivated a dependence on wireless products while simultaneously granting users access to information with a constancy not seen prior to the twenty-first century.
As technological development accelerates, the long-term effects of BlackBerry and smartphone use remain to be seen. New and evolving devices may render BlackBerry devices obsolete, or perhaps greater societal dependence on smartphones will facilitate the brand’s revival. Either way, the rise of smartphones has had an undeniable effect on the pace of communication in the 2000s.
Further Reading
Barrett, Brian. "BlackBerry's Rise and Fall in 10 Phones." Wired, 28 Sept. 2016, www.wired.com/2016/09/blackberrys-rise-fall-10-phones. Accessed 24 Jan. 2017.
Foxx, Chris. "Blackberry Stops Designing Its Own Phones." BBC News, 28 Sept. 2016, www.bbc.com/news/technology-37493566. Accessed 24 Jan. 2017.
Jennings, Ralph. "BlackBerry Turns Moribund Phone Business Over to World Factory Hub China." Forbes, 19 Dec. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2016/12/19/blackberry-picks-world-factory-hub-china-to-absorb-its-moribund-phone-business. Accessed 24 Jan. 2017.
Joyce, Amy. “For Some, Thumb Pain is BlackBerry’s Stain.” Washington Post 23 Apr. 2005. Web. 1 Nov. 2012.
Noguchi, Yuki. “Government Enters Fray Over BlackBerry Patents.” Washington Post 12 Nov. 2005. Web. 2 Nov. 2012.
Sweeny, Alastair. BlackBerry Planet: The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device that Took the World by Storm. Mississauga: Wiley, 2009. Print.