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The Complete History of RIM

Posted by timothy on from the first-there-were-the-dinosaurs dept.

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."

5 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. You'd think by BillsPetMonkey · · Score: 4, Funny

    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
  2. My brief encouner with them by PhotoGuy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  3. Doesn't this make them evil by MonGuSE · · Score: 3, Insightful
    "Its a great example of how to succeed by carefully making a defacto standard out of a good proprietary technology."

    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?

  4. Microsoft could learn a thing or two... by duffer_01 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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
  5. They're like Tivo by bwalling · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.