It didn't come as such a big surprise. However, this is a good reason to remember the history of the once largest smartphone manufacturer in the North American market.
Paging (1984-1998)
In 1984, Canadian Mike Lazaridis, while a student at the University of Waterloo, registered a company called Research In Motion (RIM). Initially, the company's activity was engineering work, namely the design of devices for wireless data transmission.
In the early 1990s, Research In Motion began collaborating with Ericsson and RAM Mobile Data, from which it borrowed technology for wireless text transmission in the then widespread paging networks.
In 1996, the world saw the first RIM gadget - the pager [email protected] Pager 950 that ran on the Mobitex network. Unlike most competing models, which could only receive text messages, [email protected] The Pager 950 was equipped with a QWERTY keyboard, and therefore also allowed sending messages.
Aimed [email protected] Pager 950 was primarily for the corporate segment, and therefore did not become a mass product. And even at that time it was not yet fashionable among young people to correspond in chats non-stop.
In 1997, RIM's management decided to rebrand their products. The new line of mobile gadgets was named BlackBerry, the name and new branding were created by the marketing company Lexicon Branding specially hired for this. It was the blackberry (English - blackberry) that, according to Lexicon Branding employees, resembled the keyboard of the then RIM devices.
Smartphones are coming (1999-2006)
RIM released its first smartphone in 1999 - the model was named BlackBerry 5810. Like the company's pagers, the device was equipped with a QWERTY keyboard and a monochrome display, but with a larger diagonal. Interestingly, the first version of the BlackBerry 5810 was devoid of the earpiece and microphone. For phone calls, you had to plug in a wired headset. In subsequent revisions, however, the built-in voice communication facilities were added.
In 2004, the first RIM smartphone with a color display, the BlackBerry 7210, was released. In the same year, RIM celebrated two significant events at once: the first million of the company's mobile gadgets were sold, and ten months later - the second. As paradoxical as it sounds today, working purely in the corporate segment, RIM grew faster than its consumer-oriented competitors in the mobile market.
Inspired by success, RIM for the first time in its history goes beyond the corporate market and begins to create "smart" gadgets that ordinary Canadians and Americans would want to buy. In 2006, the BlackBerry Pearl 8120 was announced with a simplified telephone keypad.
In addition, the 8120 was the first smartphone from the company with a built-in camera and software media player. Pearl had four possible paint options (black, gray, blue and red). This was so unlike the previous corporate-austere BlackBerry models.
It was a time when neither Apple iPhone nor Android smartphones existed yet, and Nokia ruled the ball only in Europe and Asia. Only Palm communicators and solutions based on Windows Mobile from different manufacturers actually competed with RIM in the North American market.
Golden time (2007-2010)
RIM managed to maintain its brand and grow its audience thanks to well-developed web services for doing business. For example, the BlackBerry Internet Service (BIS) for small businesses is responsible for real-time synchronization, data compression to speed up downloads and save Internet traffic, and privacy.
For big business, a much more functional Blackberry Enterprise Server is offered, which allows data exchange between a corporate mail server and a smartphone via a secure communication channel.
By 2009, RIM managed to sell more than 50 million smartphones worldwide (only Nokia sold more), and in terms of financial growth it even surpassed all competitors. A year later, Blackberry smartphones surpassed the milestone of 100 million units sold. True, by that time Apple had already joined the arms race, as well as Google with its "iron" partners (HTC, Samsung and Motorola).
Unsuccessful attempt to adjust (2011-2012)
In 2011, RIM, while still successful, realizes the need to quickly adapt to the changing market for mobile gadgets. Her first reformist step was the release of the Tablet PC. From the point of view of technical characteristics, the BlackBerry PlayBook turned out to be quite successful: a rubberized case, an IPS-screen, a dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor and loud bass speakers on the front panel.
But the meager selection of applications for the BlackBerry OS, built on top of QNX, prevented the RIM tablet from becoming a mainstream product. A specially created emulator for running Android applications in BlackBerry OS did not become a panacea either. Applications ran slower in emulation mode than in their native environment. After some time, the PlayBook tablet was already being sold at discounted prices.
As a result, the share price of RIM fell fivefold in a year, and the founder and long-term head of the company, Mike Lazaridis, was forced to leave his post. The new executive director of the company was Torsten Heins, who previously headed the German company Siemens. Putting at the helm of the already problematic RIM of a person who had previously suffered a defeat with Siemens' mobile division is a very controversial decision.
Farewell to the consumer market (2013)
Despite the release of rather interesting smartphones BlackBerry Q10 and Z10 (the first button, the second touch), the new leadership of RIM failed to get things right. Perhaps the only thing that remained in the memory of Haynes' reign was the renaming of Research In Motion into BlackBerry. BlackBerry currently controls only 2.7% of the global smartphone market, behind even Windows Phone, which came in third with 3.3% of devices.
In the summer of 2013, it was announced about the intention to sell the BlackBerry company, but no one was willing to pay the required amount. Therefore, already in September, it was announced that RIM was leaving the consumer segment of the mobile device market and a massive reduction in staff. Now BlackBerry will do what it started with: designing hardware and software solutions exclusively for the corporate sector. Time will tell whether she will succeed in regaining the trust of big business.
Gadget manufacturers
BlackBerry is widely recognized as a manufacturer of business-class smartphones. In fact, it also deserves credit for providing reliable and secure software for industrial applications and mobile device management. Most importantly, this company manufactures telecommunications and wireless equipment. Its hardware and software products are used by various government agencies around the world, and are also actively used by industrial enterprises and car manufacturers. In other words, most of the activity remains unknown to the general public.The firm was founded by Waterloo student and Istanbul native Mike Lazaridis in 1984. It was originally called Research In Motion (RIM), and it was she who was destined to develop and release the BlackBerry device. However, this was still a long way off.
The future company founder, university rector and officer was born into an ethnic Greek Pontic family, and at the age of five he moved with them to Canada. As a teenager, he developed an extraordinary interest in science and technology. At the age of twelve, Lazaridis received the Windsor Public Library Prize for having read all of her scholarly books.
Growing up, Mike will enter the University of Waterloo in the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. In a few years he will be engaged in a project of General Motors, thanks to which he will earn $ 500 thousand. This will be followed by the conclusion of a contract and a small grant from the government. In '84, Research In Motion will be founded in collaboration with the University of Windsor student engineer Douglas Fregin.
The early years of the company's development were funded by Canadian institutional and venture capital investors in 1995. The first venture capital investment was aimed at completing the development of Research In Motion's two-way paging hardware and software system.
The company raised just $ 30 million before its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange. RIM worked with Ericsson and RAM Mobile Data on the Mobitex wireless network, which would enable bi-directional data transfers, and a wireless email network.
In the summer of 98th went on sale [email protected] Pager 950.
It was about the size of a soap dish, but compared to the firm's SkyTel. With it, it was possible to type and send messages to other similar devices. Outwardly, the device resembled a pager. He had a big screen and his main function was corporate communication.
In 1999, Research In Motion introduced a device called the BlackBerry 850 pager. It was named so because one of the engineers drew a parallel between tiny lacquered keys and blackberries. The developers liked the name, and they decided to use it in the future.
Thanks to its own additional server software, the device was able to receive push notifications from the Microsoft server. This invention laid the foundation for the company's future products. At the same time, work began on the creation of the first mobile device.
In the spring of 2000, the BlackBerry 957 appeared - the company's first smartphone. He worked under the control of the BlackBerry OS platform, and was actively used in business and government structures.
In the same year, Lazaridis becomes an Honorary Doctor of Engineering at the University of Waterloo. Three years will pass, and he will be able to receive the post of rector, and in a few more years he will become an officer of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.
Soon, the future Blackberry company (still RIM at the time) took up the development of mobile devices aimed at the consumer market. The first smartphone of the new model was the BlackBerry Pearl 8100. It was equipped with multimedia functions, including a camera. The Pearl series has proven to be quite successful. The number of BlackBerry users grew around the world.
In 2004, a mobile device with a color display was released, which received the name BlackBerry 7210. This particular model opens the 7000 series. Most of the devices in this series have Bluetooth support.
At the same time, the company is releasing a device without a QWERTY keyboard. The 8700 series will be notable for the fact that the devices will be equipped with increased memory capacity, chat, camera and a better screen. In 2007 the company starts producing communicators.
Interesting fact: during his election campaign in 2007-2008, Barack Obama constantly used a BlackBerry communicator, and since then this particular device has become an integral part of the image of the future president.
By the way, according to the law, American presidents are prohibited from using personal means of communication, and therefore immediately after taking office, he had to abandon the device. Later, a loophole in the legislation was found, and Obama was still able to win the right to use his personal BlackBerry smartphone.
This was justified by the fact that in case of court proceedings in which the head of state is involved, his personal correspondence cannot be used, and therefore he has the right to use his own e-mail.
The first iPhone was released in 2007.
This was accompanied by great excitement, and it was assumed that the "apple" smartphone will seriously compete with BlackBerry. The iPhone proved to be a powerful mobile platform, a new touch interface, and a huge multimedia experience.
Either way, the media dubbed him "the BlackBerry killer." This was the impetus for Research In Motion to create their first touch-screen smartphone. It was the BlackBerry Storm. This smartphone sold well, but received a lot of bad reviews.
In addition, the company faced criticism from the media, accusing it of the fact that the operating system it uses was outdated and would not be able to withstand the competition. Be that as it may, in the fall of 2010, the BlackBerry user base in the United States reached 21 million.
Google Android devices and iPhones remained the main competitors as they continued to accelerate growth as well. The BlackBerry line was still a success, but it didn't make a big splash on the international market. All this made its creators turn to new platforms.
Windows Phone was also among the new competitors.
For several years, the BlackBerry remained the premier smartphone in many markets, especially the United States. The advent of iOS and Android has dramatically slowed BlackBerry growth and negatively impacted sales. Increasingly, the media spoke of this device as uncompetitive.
They also noted that RIM is unable to continue to be successful as a standalone company. Fortunately, BlackBerry has managed to maintain some of its position, and this has been bolstered by its earned user base and cost-effective plans. In addition, the smartphone market continued to grow across the globe.
While Research In Motion's secure networks remained attractive to corporate customers, their phones were less attractive to the average consumer. All this caused massive layoffs of employees in 2011. In addition, in September of the same year, another unpleasant event occurred: the BlackBerry Internet server suffered from extensive outages.
This event (along with the announcement of the iPhone 4S) led to a massive churn of users. However, RIM reacted quickly. In October, she unveiled the new BBX platform, which would run future BlackBerry smartphones. This was followed by accusations of the brand in borrowing the name BBX. This is why the platform has been renamed BlackBerry 10.
In September, the company announced the release of the BlackBerry PlayBook tablet, around which there were many rumors. It was the first device to run the QNX platform, also known as the BlackBerry Tablet OS. In 2011, the tablet was officially introduced to US and Canadian buyers.
Unfortunately, it has been criticized for entering the market unfinished. The tablet sold poorly. All this prompted the company to reduce its cost.
In early 2012, Mike Lazaris and Jim Balsillie stepped down as CEO, handing over the reins to CEO Thorsten Haynes. RIM soon suffered heavy losses, and Haynes decided to take over the restructuring. He laid off numerous employees and replaced some executives, and also delayed the release of the BlackBerry 10 platform.
After much criticism, the company officially announced a new operating system and two smartphones running it - BlackBerry Z10 and Q10. This happened in early 2013. The BlackBerry Z10 smartphone was first introduced in January 2013 and went on sale in the UK to begin with.
It was equipped with a high-definition display and a dual-core processor. This was followed by its presentation in the USA. The company aspired to become # 1, using its own developments in the process of creating its own operating system (and not adapting its devices to other platforms). In this they should be given their due.
During the launch of BlackBerry 10, another important event took place: the company formerly known as Research In Motion was named BlackBerry. All this allowed us to create our own brand and draw attention to smartphones. Moreover, most of the customers and so called the manufacturer of their devices only as BlackBerry.
In the fall of 2013, the company is engaged in direct sales in the United States. Unlocked Q10 and Z10 smartphones are sold directly from the BlackBerry website. Both devices were running BlackBerry 10 OS.
The Z10 smartphone was also equipped with a QWERTY keyboard.
The company strives to survive, as well as to remain a reputable and reliable brand. In May 2013, the US Department of Defense approved mobile devices running the BlackBerry 10 OS for corporate use by its employees.
In May 2014, Blackberry delivered the Z3 smartphones at a reduced cost to the popular Indonesian market. The device was created in conjunction with the Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn (they were responsible for its design and distribution). Unfortunately, it was still more expensive than most Android models.
Among the most notable smartphones of 2014 are the BlackBerry Passport with a QWERTY keyboard and a square touchscreen display. This device was running BlackBerry OS version 10.3. In just the first six hours after the start of its sales, over 200 thousand smartphones were sold.
Another great invention of the company that year was the all-touch BlackBerry Rio smartphone. There were no hardware buttons at all.
What will happen to the company next? In June 2014, CNN published an article in which she named her as one of the endangered brands in the United States. Even as BlackBerry continues to grow globally in 2015, investors and the media are deeply concerned about whether it can compete with mobile platforms like Android.
One way or another, it still remains a large and well-known telecommunications company, as well as a manufacturer of communicators that have managed to occupy their own niche in the market. The modern BlackBerry smartphone has the ability to surf the web and work with e-mail. In addition, it interacts with other remote services.
What makes BlackBerry business smartphones so remarkable? Many of them are equipped with full-format QWERTY keyboards, which makes it very convenient for their owners to work with texts and enter data. Smartphones are also well protected with built-in messaging protection.
We are used to separating work and personal life. We try to make sure that our personal experiences do not interfere with our work, and "we do not take work home." But sometimes it is impossible to separate the two sides of life.
I remembered a case when, at work, I had to send my superiors a photo of a layout for one project from a smartphone (then the iPhone 4s). The day was terrible and tense, I was sending the photo on the go, as I was in a hurry to the evening driving school. And in the zapara, instead of the desired photo of the layout, I sent the photo next to the gallery from the weekend, where I was sitting in the bessein at the dacha of a friend, wrapped in a towel like a Roman patrician. Everything would not be so bad if my boss was not a woman over 40 ... It was terribly embarrassing, but in the end everything ended well.
Nobody is immune from such situations. It could be worse: what if you accidentally send a confidential working document to the wrong person? Carrying two phones - work and personal - is not very convenient. But now it is not necessary. The BlackBerry Balance service for corporate clients divides two spaces of one phone into personal and work. How? Read on ...
Who is BlackBerry Balance for?
BlackBerry has always taken one of its most valuable customers — the business sector — seriously. If this client never complained about the security of data, then in terms of the convenience of the services provided, various wishes were received. And now with the release of the BlackBerry 10 operating system and several of its updates, the BlackBerry Balance split-screen service became available to the corporate sector. Connecting the service allows you to switch between two "profiles" with personal and work information.
This is the case when convenience adds to the security of corporate communications. After all, the main function of BlackBerry Balance is leakage prevention. The service is activated by IT managers for devices already connected to the corporate BES system.
How does BlackBerry Balance work?
BlackBerry Balance operates on a split-screen basis. Although in reality it is better to call it "division of space". This is somewhat similar to creating two user profiles on a Windows computer. But if profiles can share common files and have access to the same information, then Balance does not allow this. Therefore, it is better to compare the principle of the service with two operating systems on one computer. Everything that happens in one space has nothing to do with another. Basically, it's as if you have two identical BlackBerrys - one for work and one for yourself.
Not only files are not shuffled. The smartphone will have two phone books, two sets of applications. Even text that is selected and copied in the workspace cannot be pasted in the personal. In the working "account" it will be possible to install only those applications that are authorized by the IT-manager of the company, and it will be possible to download those that are required for all users of the BES company. Some applications will be duplicated, but work as separate ones, and you will need to configure them separately. This is primarily about Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. Thus, in your personal space you can use your personal twitter account, and in the work area you can write short messages from your work or official account.
Calendars and mail are of course worth mentioning. They also do not depend on each other. Calendar and BlackBerry Hub will be one to two spaces. In the Hub, from your personal screen, you will see that a letter has arrived at your work mail, but you can open it only after switching to work mode. With event scheduling, this is also very convenient: if there were two calendars, there would be a risk of scheduling a personal and business meeting on the same day and at the same time. But with BlackBerry Balance, you can see that certain hours are already taken, and it is impossible to schedule something for the same time. As you may have guessed, to find out exactly what is planned there, you need to switch to another mode.
The browser keeps separate history and bookmarks in each space. Transferring any contacts from the work area to the personal will require confirmation.
As for customization, some companies prefer to send mandatory settings along with mandatory corporate applications to BlackBerry connected to BES. Such settings will affect only the workspace, on the personal "half" of the smartphone, all freedom in setting belongs to the owner.
What's the bottom line?
BlackBerry has found a sleek and functional solution for the corporate sector. BlackBerry Balance is not only convenient in terms of information management, but also secure. Due to the fact that the two spaces do not intersect in any way, data leakage and the appearance of malicious software are reduced to zero.
Finally, I would like to say that it would be great to see a "popular", albeit a simplified version of BlackBerry Balance for all users. That is, without connecting to BES. I don’t think I will be the first to express this idea. And the Canadians from BlackBerry often listen to their customers (remember at least Classic!), And it is quite possible that in the future one of the large-scale updates to the BlackBerry 10 OS will bring us the ability to divide the smartphone into two parts.
As a matter of fact, this is the rare case when a product gives a name to a company, and not vice versa. The current one was founded in 1984 and was called Research In Motion or RIM for almost 30 years, and only recently, in January 2013, it was renamed.
Research In Motion was founded by University of Waterloo student Mike Lazaridis and was originally focused on engineering challenges. However, not having achieved significant success in this field in four years, the company became interested in working with wireless data transmission. This time, as they say, it got "into the stream", because then paging communication was rapidly gaining popularity.
Despite the convenience of smartphones for the business segment, "ordinary" users considered the manufacturer's devices to be very large and inconvenient. And therefore, in the same 2004, the company decided to expand its target audience by releasing a phone without a QWERTY keyboard. In addition, the diagonals and quality of displays, as well as memory, appear, applications, a camera, chat, etc. appear.
In 2007 it presented a series of communicators, among which were the 8820, designed specifically for corporate users and having a built-in Wi-Fi module, and the 8830 World Edition, which is distinguished by its versatility.
However, in 2011, the situation deteriorated significantly. Despite the fact that bright and interesting devices continued to be produced - competitors did their job, Android smartphones with their availability were taking over the world at an incredibly fast pace, and the iOS platform gained more and more loyal fans thanks to its high performance and stability. In October 2011, the company acquired NewBay, a company that develops cloud technologies for telecom operators, but at the end of the year, due to lack of funds, it had to sell its "daughter" - Synchronoss.
In 2012, out of harsh criticism from investors, the founder of the company, Mike Lazaridis, was removed from the position of chief executive officer, however, in return he received the post of deputy chairman of the board of directors, and also became the head of the innovation committee.
2013 began for the company with a global renewal, both in the literal and figurative sense of the word. First, RIM has finally turned into
The history of BlackBerry began in 1984. Then Research In Motion made communicators that looked like a pager. They were sharpened only for the transmission of text. In 1997, the name "BlackBerry" was first used. The buttons on the machine resembled a blackberry, and that is how the name was coined. Communicators with QWERTY-keyboard, which was considered very convenient at that time, appeared in 2007.
BlackBerry smartphones are service devices. Their main feature is the security of data transmission according to the AES standard to protect against eavesdropping. Another development is responsible for this - the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES).
The solution is installed on the equipment of the mobile operator and the customer company. Each smartphone on the network has its own unique number by which it is identified with the server. The intermediaries between the sender and the recipient are the company's server and the mobile operator. Thus, the approach is relevant for paranoid corporations that would like to monitor data on employees' devices.
Due to the closed nature, in Russia BlackBerry was not sold officially for a long time - this was prevented by the ubiquitous special services. Now Beeline is working with BlackBerry devices, but BlackBerry Messenger (a protected analogue of ICQ) is disabled in them. In Ukraine, he started implementing the solution.
Today the BlackBerry company has lost its relevance even more. Many smartphones are able to work with VPN - virtual private network, the encryption and protection of which you can configure yourself. In addition, there are a number of applications that can restrict access to data and their transfer - for example, Samsung's Knox.
Despite the upgrade in terms of working with text, multimedia, graphic files and increasing the usability of smartphones, BlackBerry remains quite expensive. We practically did not deal with "blackberry" devices, but the latest model of the BlackBerry Z3 smartphone with the latest update of the BlackBerry 10 OS still got into our Test Laboratory.
It should be noted that the smartphone is really typical for the business segment. Although this device is not the most expensive one. Austere design and a slightly heavy non-separable body.
The back is covered with textured plastic and prevents the smartphone from slipping out of your hands. There is also a speaker below, which, by the way, is very loud.
All buttons are on the left side. This is convenient, since you can press them with your thumb without unnecessary interceptions. There are also no hardware buttons here. Navigation through applications is due to a unified interface, and applications are closed by swiping from bottom to top.
The SIM and MicroSD slots are on the right and covered with a common flap. MicroUSB is used for connection and charging. The audio jack is on top.
Holding the middle button between volume up and volume down launches the Intelligent Assistant. With it, you can search on your smartphone, on the network, or perform quick operations (call, write SMS, etc.). In OS version 10.3.1, the assistant now has voice input. There is no support for Ukrainian and Russian languages.
Thanks to the new optimized firmware, the 2500 mAh battery lasts several hours more than Android smartphones of similar parameters. With a moderate load - a couple of hours of Internet via Wi-Fi, SMS and a dozen calls - the smartphone works for almost two days.
The smartphone has a Qualcomm MSM8230 dual-core processor and 1.5 GB of RAM. Quite an old solution, but enough for BlackBerry OS. There are no lags and brakes at all. It has 8 GB of internal memory and memory cards up to 32 GB. True, we used a 64 GB version of the card, and it is supported without problems.
When connected to a computer, the smartphone automatically detects the operating system and offers to install the BlackBerry Link from the company's website. Only then will the phone memory be visible in the explorer. No drivers are needed for the memory card, it is immediately visible from the PC.
There are almost no programs from PlayMarket in the native BlackBerry World application store. But you can install third-party options that will allow you to use the familiar Instagram, Forsquare, Dropbox, etc. After examining the question, we found information that it was in the latest version of the BlackBerry OS that the optimization of their work was seriously reworked. Android apps take longer to launch, but are more stable than previous versions.
The BlackBerry Z3 is considered a mid-range device. The price in Ukraine is about 5000 UAH. Apparently, the latest OS update and Z3 model are attempts to regain user loyalty and get new customers. Most likely already for flagship devices. It remains for us to say that the decision is not without interest, and the means of protection may become more relevant in view of the current situation of information confrontation.
Blackberry Z3
OS: BlackBerry 10.3.1
Processor: Qualcomm MSM8230, 1.2 GHz
Screen: 5 ", 540 × 960, AMOLED
RAM: 1.5 GB
Memory: 8GB + MicroSD 32GB
main 5 MPix., autofocus, LED flash
frontal 1.1 Mpix.
Communications: Wi-Fi 802.11 b / g / n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS
Battery: 2500 mAh
Dimensions: 140 x 72.8 x 9.26 mm
Supplier: ASBIS-Ukraine
Grade:
Good performance
Optimization in the new OS
Autonomy
- no familiar applications
