What was blackberry first phone

In , the company introduced its first mobile phone product in the BlackBerry , which came with functionality for push email and internet. Over the ensuing decade, the BlackBerry became the device of choice in corporate America due to its enterprise-level security and business functionality.

Slow market reaction to competition. Subsequent devices reintroduced the keyboard in a combo touchscreen-keyboard setup e. Focusing on the wrong end market. As Apple and Google made smartphones accessible to the mass consumer by creating slick user interfaces and attractive apps, BlackBerry remained doggedly focused on its enterprise customers and their security and connectivity requirements. In part due to its enterprise focus, BlackBerry innovated primarily around feature improvement — faster email, better security, etc.

In doing so, it missed the value proposition of the smartphone as a platform for personal productivity and entertainment. Even its most popular app, BlackBerry Messenger BBM , was leveraged ineffectively — by mandating that BBM be installed only on BlackBerry devices instead of building up a larger user base across platforms, BlackBerry missed the opportunity that third-party messaging apps like WhatsApp eventually took advantage of. Poor execution. The launch of the touchscreen Storm in was a colossal failure.

The release of the Playbook tablet was largely derided for a lack of native email, calendar, and contacts applications. Even its more recent incarnations, like the BlackBerry Priv in , suffered from ineffective product launches, poor functionality, and incoherent value propositions. Since bringing on turnaround veteran John Chen as CEO in late , BlackBerry has given up on producing phones and has reinvented itself as a software and services business.

The Bold resurfaced again in and this time, it featured short-range wireless NFC technology -- typically used for contactless ticketing and payments.

There's also a five-megapixel camera onboard. Announced in but reaching these shores in was perhaps RIM's most radical departure yet: the PlayBook. The tablet, an attempt to capitalise on the wave of slate love initiated by Apple, has a seven-inch display, is 1cm thick and has both front and rear cameras.

The was a lonely soul -- for 3G connectivity, it had to be tethered to a BlackBerry smartphone using a feature called BlackBerry Bridge , which connected the smartphone and tablet over a secure Bluetooth link. As well as updating its Curve and Bold franchises in , BlackBerry gave its Torch range a polish with three new models in the middle of the year.

Torch above stuck to the original Torch brief of touchscreen plus slideout keyboard, while the and were touch-only, with a 3. Later that year, the company brought out an-all touch Curve, bringing Qwerty-less phones to the lower end of the market for the first time. The 3. After talking up the social functionality of its cheaper handsets, BlackBerry began to take a more prominent place on the hardware in early The device also sported an FM radio and a two-megapixel camera.

Early in , BlackBerry brought out its first devices bearing its revamped OS,. The operating system's flagship, , marked a departure in design terms -- the touchscreen device moved away from the rounded and bubbly feel of the older BlackBerrys in favour of a sharper, sleeker rectangle.

The most recently used app is shown to the top left of the screen with up to eight of the most recently run apps alongside. On the hardware side, the Z10's core specs included a 4. While BlackBerry 10 marked a departure for the company, it couldn't say goodbye to its heritage entirely, and launched a Qwerty device alongside the Z10, called. As well as having a smaller touchscreen -- 3.

A lower-end Qwerty followed: had a slightly squarer feel and more colour options than its predecessor. The BlackBerry Passport is a hand-stretchingly wide rectangle with a three-decker physical keyboard and a square screen. This bulky device is aimed at the business market and will not be mistaken for any other phone on the market. Considering that the last handset the company released was the anonymous, plastic-clad Q5, the Z30 is an immediate return to quality.

It's a sturdy 5-inch phablet with good battery life and some elegant tweaks, but is it a little bit too sensible for its own good? The BlackBerry Classic , released in December , saw the return of what BlackBerry is calling the 'classic navigation keys' which have been absent from the recent crop of BlackBerry 10 handsets: a phonecall key, menu key, trackpad, back button and, yes - back at last - an end call key.

And whereas the Passport and the Classic were aimed at that niche audience of managers who still prefer pecking away on a hard keyboard, BlackBerry aimed the Leap at the mass market of "young power professionals who want to get things done". Why buy the Priv? No other high-end Android smartphone has a hardware keyboard, and it features a bottom-up approach towards security and data privacy, starting with the hardware itself. Given the growing number of security scares and malware hitting the Android platform, security-minded individuals, not to mention enterprises, may not mind paying a perceived premium for the BlackBerry Priv.

And when it comes to hardware specs, it compares favorably to most similarly-priced Android flagships. In , BlackBerry released what it claimed was the 'world's most secure Android smartphone'. It looked to attract smartphone buyers' attention for another reason: it's one of the last phones designed by BlackBerry to hit the market. These choices will be signaled globally to our partners and will not affect browsing data. We and our partners process data to: Actively scan device characteristics for identification.

I Accept Show Purposes. Your Money. Personal Finance. Your Practice. Popular Courses. Business Company Profiles. Key Takeaways Blackberry was a pioneer in handheld devices but has lost market share to larger rivals like Apple. The company, which was formerly known as Research In Motion, grew by leaps and bound from to , as the company's innovative product lines were well received.

The launch of the touchscreen iPhone in triggered a dramatic shift away from Blackberry handheld devices. Hopes for a turnaround have been dashed, as the company grapples with intense competition from larger technology companies.

Blackberry has lost more than half of its market value in two years. Article Sources. Investopedia requires writers to use primary sources to support their work.

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