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The Complete History of RIM
museumpeace writes "I enjoyed reading Alex Frankel's thorough Tech. Review article on the luck, persistence and shrewdness that took RIM's proprietary mobile e-mail technology from presumed small niche product to the must-have blackberry that so many use today. Although the technology at the heart of the product was developed in 1989, it took years of further development, the lucky break of GPRS supplanting Mobitex, and the business smarts to jump on their first-mover advantage and the daring to partner with giant Nokia who could have swallowed RIM. Its a great example of how to succeed by carefully making a defacto standard out of a good proprietary technology."
They could find a better name for it.
All this talk of mobile RIMming and Nokia swallowing RIM just sounds a bit icky.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
The explosion of RIM jobs and how it lead to an increase of black berries...
Blackberry is used by so many? just recently on slashdot was the first time I and many had heard of it.
Marketing hype taking over slashdot.
What about Nokia?
I know M$ is bad and GNU/Linux good beyond that I get a cluster headache.
In November 2002, Research in Motion (RIM) and Nokia announced a licensing arrangement allowing Nokia to offer its customers the ability to receive e-mail using RIM's BlackBerry software. The news perplexed industry watchers. For the three years before the deal, only RIM's devices could connect with the company's enterprise server, so that RIM owned both parts of the market for wireless e-mail: the devices and their software. RIM, in fact, seemed to own the very notion of that market.
The BlackBerry was the hardware equivalent of a killer app, the now overused term popularized in the 1980s to describe a piece of software so attractive to users that they feel they cannot be without it. Every new technology needs a killer app to establish its acceptance; for wireless e-mail, the BlackBerry filled that need. As businesses started to deploy the device to an increasingly mobile--and pressed--workforce, BlackBerry emerged as a critical tool for businesspeople.
Why, then, would RIM make its proprietary software available to others? Why would the company partner with a massive competitive threat such as Nokia? To many observers outside RIM, these decisions signaled a major shift in the company's business model. But to those inside RIM, they stemmed from a strategy the company had always followed.
RIM's case highlights a business problem that countless technology companies have had to deal with: when a company creates a revolutionary product whose software becomes critical to the establishment of a market, it has to figure out whether to keep its software all to itself or license it in an effort to make its technology the industry standard.
RIM has, throughout its history, followed two imperatives: make the best possible proprietary device for wireless e-mail and follow whatever course will increase the size of that market. Started in 1984 as a firm that built electronic devices for other companies, RIM signed its first deal with General Motors, to deliver a networked display system that scrolled words across LED signs in GM factories. The idea behind what eventually became the BlackBerry system dates to 1989, when RIM worked on an outsourced project for Ericsson. As RIM focused more on wireless data, it started manufacturing its own devices. Pager companies like Motorola had tried to combine e-mail with pagers, but none of the devices achieved much success. By the early 1990s, even PC-based e-mail had yet to take off, and many in the telecommunications industry saw wireless e-mail as a product that people did not really want or need.
RIM proved the viability of this market in stages. First, it received an order in 1997 from BellSouth for $50 million worth of wireless e-mail devices. BellSouth was offering a pioneering service intended to allow data transmission in applications like inventory tracking for rail transport. Its so-called Mobitex network used Ericsson technology, but it still needed a supplier to build a hardware component for consumer use. The opportunity gave Research in Motion a critical test network for its device.
The opportunity also convinced RIM that it ought to seek out a larger market for its new device, known within the company as PocketLink. In 1998, RIM began working with a California-based branding agency called Lexicon. One Lexicon strategist thought the gadget's keyboard resembled the seeds of a berry; the BlackBerry launched in January 1999. Instead of employing a stylus and handwriting recognition software, the device used a small, thumb-operated qwerty keyboard. But as impressive as its physical design was, the truly remarkable thing about the BlackBerry was that RIM provided everything needed to make it work: the device itself, the software that made it run, the servers that routed e-mail from the wired network, and the airtime that RIM leased from mobile-phone carriers. "As first mover in the market, we had an opportunity to build a brand around a new category," said Dave Werezak, vice president of RIM's Enterprise Business Unit.
By mid-1999
Legend has it that when RIM started, they were writing software for a large mobile phone company. They said to the company: "We see a golden opprortunity to include an excellent feature in your phone." The company told them to stick to their knitting. The guys at RIM (being geniuses) decided to create the Blackberry because they knew it would take off.
The RIM guys really had guts and somebody else really missed the boat!
That oughta bring out INSTANT success right?
(muhahahaha!)
In the early 90's, I talked with RIM about potential employment. They had a low speed external modem using Mobitex (I think) that would hook to your serial port.
They didn't have the "killer app" for it at the time, but were very much in the mode of "let's be smart and figure out a good application for this technology." While that approach can often be puttnig the cart before the horse, they persisted, and it obviously paid off, hitting the sweet spot of using the lower speed bandwidth for the two-way pager-like always-on-but-not-quite-fully-online BlackBerry.
It really is a rare and excellent example of finding the right killer app for a given (and flexible, but seeming limited) technology. Having the technical wherewithal to put that in a small pager-like device (several years ago), obviously shows some real technical talents in their company, too.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
I thought that we were shunning this approach at standards wrangling? Whenever MS or Sony tries this we are against it what is different this time?
Looks like RIM did a good JOB.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
One hour and twenty-two minutes late.
/. so you can get 'frist psot', but it took 82 minutes to haul your fat, lazy, I-got-this-from-10-stuffed-crust-pizzas-a-day ass down to the basement?
Let me guess; you have a script set up on your PC to inform you of a new story on
Do you pay a fixed amount for a month and then you can send all the emails you want or each email you send cost you a few cents? Can you send SMS for free too?
I have seen it a fair amount in the Washington DC area.
/.
I mean, the technology is interesting, but from an enterprise standpoint, I have a problem with it being "yet another system to set up and maintain". Since the whole thing is proprietary, its not like you can run it from either open sourced stuff or even popular stuff like MS Exchange.
From an end user standpoint, it appears to me like 2-way paging, except that it acts like e-mail. Maybe it resonates with users because it is like a pager. Personally, I can't see typing much on those little keyboards.
But in the end, it seems standards based email over Verizon EV-DO (and other 3G type wireless products) is better just because it doesn't require you do anything special. It doesn't require a proprietary infrastructure, it doesn't require special devices. I think the reason this hasn't happened yet has to do with the wireless carriers unwillingness to really open their network and roll it out everywhere. But that will slowly happen over the next few years. That's why I think the carriers and handset manufacturers have embraced RIM; its convenient, and it can be replaced easily.
I could be wrong, but then, that's the fun part about speculation on
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
There is good reason why the email client in Windows Mobile 5.0 will not kill off the BlackBerry. RIM has done a great job taking advantage of the network infrastructure. Now if they could just make a device with enough power to run a real application this thing could really take off.
Adventure City Tours
A lot of us have never tried rimming, i cant say i fancy it myself though
The Blackberry is popular because it does what you want it to do without any hassle. Other PDA Email devices suck in comparison. It seems so simple - basically be a live connected email client, but all the others just have ridiculous methods of going about it.
It's the same thing as Tivo. You don't realize how nice the Tivo is until you try the cable company's DVR. Sure, it accomplishes the task, but it's more painful.
http://press.nokia.com/PR/199603/775981_5.html The Nokia 9000 Communicator was launched at March 13, 1996 and has still wide userbase in Europe, I cant see any bright future for RIM. Agreement between Nokia and RIM just allows to owertake RIM-s customers.
The thing to keep in mind is that most of the Blackberries being sold are to companies, and that they are buying them primarily for the email (and possibly cell phone/direct connect) functions, not as PDA's.
The Treo may be a better PDA, but the Blackberry is a great email device. With Enterprise Server it's easy to set up and manage, and it's pretty intuitive to use.
We've started getting some Blackberries at the college where I work, as sort of a pilot program. I recently got a Blackberry 7220 (Nextel) thru work and am pretty happy with it - except for no longer having an excuse to tell my boss that I didn't get her email
I have blog like everyone else
I work for a mid-sized CPA firm, and I have to manage our Blackberries. I have had more problems with them than any other handheld. From parts of the address book being completely lost, both on the handheld and in Groupwise, to duplicated calendar entries, to some accounts simply refusing to synchronize. There tech-support is a shame, every time I call I get the same answer, "Delete the RIM folder under application data." We told our Partners not to get them, but they just had to have them because "everyone else has them so they must work" we showed the examples of people having problems with them, but "that must be isolated." Now since they don't work, it must be GroupWise's fault because so-and-so uses Outlook and it works fine. If you look at the Blackberry Forums there are plenty of Outlook users having issues, and deleting the Outlook profile seems to be the fix-all, thats a pain when you consider 4,000 person address books and 2000 calendar entries. Funny though, one Partner decided to go with the Treo, and I have never had to work on it since he got it a year and a half ago.
... that being The Autobiography and Complete History of Steve 'Rim' Jobs: /. troll and gifted intellectual
Wow! This guy must have so many friends! I mean, who can forget his immortal tome 'White Power'?!!!
Like anybody cares ...
/. HTML submit parser or something. No offence intended 'steve' uid:1027.
The link seems to have been butchered by a
The asshole Steve 'Rim' Jobs is located here:
http://slashdot.org/~Steve%20'Rim'%20Jobs/
It's too bad they have such an unbalanced feel, and such a PITA keyboard.
Yes, I have one for work (for several months now), and I absolutely hate it.
The user interface needs a lot of work.
The balance is very top-heavy, making it very awkward to type on and hold at the same time. For a comparison, the way you hold a Sidekick/HipTop is extremely comfortable due to the overhang beside the keyboard and the c/g near the center of the keyboard - they're a breeze to type on very quickly and you can perform any function without altering the way you're holding the device.
Using the scroll-wheel requires you to shift the way you're holding it 100% from the typing position, unlike the Sidekick/HipTop. You have to go from balancing it on your fingertips (to type with your thumbs) to holding it in your right hand with your fingers on the left and your thumb on the right.
They don't come with manuals of any kind, not even downloadable! No, I don't consider the intro pamphlet a manual. I am constantly asking the extremely experienced blackberry users at work "what's this for" and "how do you do this" and half of the time they can't even answer my questions!
Overall, I consider the blackberry to be a royal PITA.
It sucks that they have a lock on the technology and are so closed-minded about the user-experience, as I would love to see either the T-Mobile Sidekick/Danger HipTop or the Nokia 9x00 Communicator series support the encrypted protocols so I can dump this awkward POS.
If anyone of any importance at RIM is reading this: Please license the tech for a reasonable cost to companies who make similar devices so the human interface can be improved on. You'll get money from each device sold as well as 100% of the back-end servers/services with none of the handheld development costs! ("win/win/win")
- Preferences: Solaris 10 (servers), Ubuntu (desktops), Solaris 11 (personal servers) -
One thing that isn't mentioned in the article is its proximity to the University of Waterloo. Its one of the world's bestComputer Science and Engineering schools and has a massive Co-Op program.
This is just plain incorrect. The 2/3 inch shipping manual and PDFs on the handheld CD weren't enough? The first match from a basic search like "blackberry user manual" on Google was too hard to type? Or was blackberry.com to hard to figure out?
If anyone of any importance at RIM is reading this: Please license the tech for a reasonable cost to companies who make similar devices so the human interface can be improved on. You'll get money from each device sold as well as 100% of the back-end servers/services with none of the handheld development costs! ("win/win/win")
If you had actually read the article you would know that roughly half of it details RIMs plans to do just that.
All this time there are those of us that thought a RIM was a remote integrated multiplexer.
I owned a RIM 950 for at least three years and haven't stopped looking for a similar gadget since mine broke. All I want is a device that allows me to (i) thumb-type short (but frequent) notes and (ii) allows me to somehow transfer those notes into a PC (preferably using Linux). I'm not really looking for a high-end, camera-&-color-display-included type cell phone: just a simple, portable, rugged gadget in which I can thumb-type and then copy that stuff onto my laptop (rs232, usb, ir, etc all being ok). Is there anything like this out there (other than aging psions)?
I used to write software for the old RIM 950, back before they introduced Blackberry. It was very nice hardware .. a 286 (or 386, I can't remember) with a few megs of RAM, all running on a few AA (or AAA, again it's been a while) batteries. Oh, and their software was all written in C/C++. And trust me, that was important..
Their competition at the time was the Motorola Pagewriter, which was crappy hardware with even worse software. It was dog slow, and you had to use their weird programming language which took the worst aspects of Pascal and Java and merged them together into something hideous. Oh, and the compiler was extremely buggy. In one version the compiler would crash if you put a comment on the line after an IF statement or something screwy like that.
The RIM was fun to program, though, and if they would give out the SDK for free I'm sure you'd see a ton of software for it.
-- Tim Buchheim