logo
episode-header-image
Feb 2023
12m 2s

The Rise and Fall of the BlackBerry

History Hit
About this episode

At its peak, the BlackBerry was the world’s most popular smartphone with almost 50% of the US market. They were called the ‘CrackBerry’ so many people wanted one. Now they have a 0% share of the market. This is the story of their rise-and-fall.


Today on Patented we’re handing over the mic to a podcast we think you’ll like called ‘Today In History…with The Retrospectors’. A podcast where hosts Arion, Rebecca and Olly tell a ten minute story from this day in history in each episode.


If you enjoy what you hear then you can discover over 450 episodes over at podfollow.com/retrospectors



Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Up next
Sep 2023
Things vs. Humans: the spiteful behaviour of inanimate objects
If you can never connect to a printer, if furniture jumps out to stub your toe, if when you do the dishes the water jumps out the sink to soak you - then you are victim of the inanimate malice of things.The belief that all things are essentially out to get us us has a name - Resi ... Show More
30m 26s
Sep 2023
First Ever Submarine
400 years ago on the River Thames a mad genius showed off the world's first submarine. A crowd of thousands including King James watched as Cornelis Drebbel disappeared beneath the murky water, only reemerging after three whole hours had passed.The same genius also came up with p ... Show More
39m 38s
Sep 2023
Inventing Fire: the First Spark of Humanity
Fire is the unsung hero of human evolution. We could not have turned into the big-brained, deep-thinking animals we are on raw food alone. The moment two million years ago that our forebears first started using fire to cook, was the spark that started everything off.That's accord ... Show More
36m 38s
Recommended Episodes
Jan 2022
Introducing the BlackBerry
Research In Motion were once the world’s most popular maker of smartphones, but when they launched the BlackBerry 850 on 19th January, 1999, the device had no phone functionality: it was marketed as a two-way pager. However, the gadget’s ability to bounce emails from a desktop se ... Show More
11m 50s
Nov 2021
Blackberry vs iPhone | The Smartphone Generation | 5
It’s a GPS! It’s a camera! It’s a computer! It’s...your smartphone. And in 2021, it feels like you can’t live without it. But when Blackberry and iPhone got into the game in the mid-2000s, that wasn’t yet the case. In just 15 years, our technology has changed dramatically — and s ... Show More
26m 9s
Nov 2021
Blackberry vs iPhone | CrackBerry | 1
It’s September 11, 2001, and the only network running in downtown NYC is the one owned and operated by BlackBerry’s manufacturer, Reserach in Motion. On one of the most devastating days in American history, that unique reliability wins RIM new fans from Wall Street to Capitol Hil ... Show More
25m 10s
Dec 2023
Taking the world by storm – a history of podcasting 2/2
In the past decade, podcasting has taken the world by storm. The advent of smartphones and the ground-breaking podcast 'Serial' would see podcasting surge in popularity.In 2020 alone over a million new shows were launched. But does it have a future? Some are not convinced. In the ... Show More
34m 36s
May 2023
Michael and Us: iPhone, Therefore I Am
As Canadians, we simply couldn't pass up a movie about our greatest national export. Matt Johnson's BLACKBERRY (2023) puts a darkly comic spin on the rise and fall of "the phone you had before your iPhone." We discuss the ways that this very funny film is both similar to and cruc ... Show More
49m 16s
Nov 2021
Blackberry vs iPhone | A Requiem in Slow Motion | 4
It’s January 2011 and Research in Motion’s Jim Balsillie is in Davos, Switzerland when he discovers that his company is being threatened by the Egyptian government. BlackBerry’s BBM messaging system is a lifeline for protestors in the country. Balsillie starts to think that BBM c ... Show More
24m 43s
Jun 2019
197. The Internet Bookshop Story With the Tech Business History Podcast
I’ve said before I wish I could cover technology history beyond just North America, more… Well, Charles Miller has started a great podcast in Britain called Tech Business History. Charles used to report on the tech business as a BBC documentary producer. In the first series of hi ... Show More
50m 8s
Nov 2021
Blackberry vs iPhone | App Attack | 3
It’s summer 2008, and Research In Motion’s Mike Lazaridis is at the product testing site for BlackBerry’s new device: a touchscreen designed to compete with the iPhone. This model, however, is going to leave more than broken glass in its wake, when it threatens to sever RIM’s rel ... Show More
24m 39s
Jan 2019
Pixel 3 Lite leaks, Apple releases new battery cases, and Samsung readies the S10
This week on The Vergecast, Nilay, Paul, and Dieter run through a week of gadget news. Images of the Google Pixel 3 “Lite” and the Samsung Galaxy S10 have leaked, starting up a new season of phone releases. The crew also looks forward to what Google will do with its investment in ... Show More
1h 22m