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BlackBerry (smartphone brand)

BlackBerry is a smartphone brand best known for its physical keyboards, enterprise security features and unified messaging. Once dominant in business markets, it later moved to Android and licensed hardware to partners.

Author: Leandro Alegsa Creation date: September 7, 2021 Last updated: June 13, 2026

Overview
BlackBerry is a brand of mobile phones originally created and sold by the Canadian company Research In Motion (RIM), now BlackBerry Limited. The devices became widely known for their compact physical QWERTY keyboards, secure messaging and email push services that appealed to corporate and governmental users. Over time the company developed its own operating systems and server software, then later shifted to Android and licensing arrangements for device manufacturing.

Distinctive characteristics

Several features set BlackBerry phones apart from competing devices, especially during their peak years:

Physical keyboard: Many models used a tactile mini-QWERTY keyboard, prized by users who preferred typing accuracy and speed.
Unified communications: The BlackBerry Hub consolidated emails, SMS, calls and social notifications into a single inbox for rapid handling.
Enterprise services: The BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES) provided encryption, centralized management and secure push email that met corporate security requirements.
Security and encryption: BlackBerry devices were often chosen by organizations requiring strong data protection and network-level controls.

History and development

The brand emerged in the late 1990s and became widely adopted in the 2000s by business users and public-sector organizations. Early success was driven by reliable push email and the BES infrastructure. To broaden consumer appeal, BlackBerry introduced various form factors including the compact Curve series, the professional Bold series and touch-screen experiments such as the Storm. The company also developed BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), an instant messaging service that gained a loyal user base.

In the 2010s the mobile landscape changed rapidly with the rise of iOS and Android. BlackBerry responded by creating a new operating system based on QNX (marketed as BlackBerry 10) and later by releasing Android-based models. Around the mid-2010s the company transitioned away from building all hardware in-house and began licensing the brand to third-party manufacturers who produced Android devices under the BlackBerry name.

Uses, importance and legacy

BlackBerry played a major role in popularizing mobile email and secure mobile communications in enterprises. For many years it was the default choice for corporate fleets, diplomats and security-conscious institutions. While its market share declined as app ecosystems and consumer preferences shifted toward touchscreen platforms, BlackBerry's design emphasis on security, manageability and efficient messaging influenced later smartphone features and mobile management solutions.

Notable distinctions and current status

BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10 were proprietary systems developed to optimize messaging and multitasking; both were eventually discontinued in favor of Android for broader application compatibility.
BBM achieved early popularity as a cross-device messaging platform; parts of the service were later opened to other platforms before being wound down or repurposed.
In recent years the BlackBerry name has been applied to Android devices produced by licensing partners rather than to handsets manufactured by BlackBerry Limited itself.

Today the BlackBerry brand endures more as a symbol of secure, productivity-focused mobile design than as a dominant handset maker. Its influence remains visible in enterprise mobility management, secure messaging concepts and the continued demand for physical keyboards among a niche of professional users.

Then US President Barack Obama on Air Force One with his BlackBerry in a holster

History

In 1999, RIM launched the first device called Blackberry 850, which subsequently ushered in the age of mobile communication. For the first time it was possible to retrieve e-mails via a mobile internet connection or to synchronize new appointments wirelessly. The first Blackberry smartphone that was not yet fully developed was the successor model Blackberry 5810 with an integrated mobile phone, which was introduced in 2002.

Blackberry developed various smartphones based on the Blackberry OS, including the popular Bold and Curve series. The company focused on business customers, but expanded the functionality in the course of time in order to win over the private user segment.

In October 2011, Blackberry introduced the new Blackberry 10 operating system at its in-house developer conference, which was used by then-current models like the Blackberry Q10, Classic, Z10 or Passport. Previous OS versions are referred to as legacyOS, according to the report. At the end of 2014, the Amazon Appstore was made available for all Blackberry 10 devices, through which the Android apps available on Amazon can be installed. Since the devices were designed as so-called workhorses for the office, they had a low processor power and no 3D graphics processor, which allowed about twice as long battery runtimes as other manufacturers - but did not allow elaborate 3D games.

The company missed the move away from keyboards to touchscreens in 2008. As a result, mobile phone sales plummeted in early 2011 and BlackBerry experienced dramatic revenue declines in the years that followed. In 2013, John Chen took over as CEO and refocused the business on software and services. As part of that, Blackberry divested itself of its own smartphone development and manufacturing in 2016, licensing devices only to cut costs. As a result, BlackBerry is a software-only provider in the smartphone space. Chen explained in an interview in 2016 that there will still be Blackberry-branded smartphones with keyboards in the future.

A year later, Blackberry released the PRIV model, its first own smartphone with an Android system. BlackBerry hardens software and hardware to offer some of the most secure Android smartphones on the market.

In February 2020, they announced they would cease production.

Many analysts had assumed an end to the brand and the physical keyboard, but they have announced another smartphone for 2021, it is said to be 5G-enabled and manufactured by Onward Mobility.

Function

The essential function of a legacy Blackberry smartphone is to be able to receive and send mobile emails as a push service. In addition, Blackberrys offer the usual smartphone functions, such as address book, calendar, instant messenger (WhatsApp or the discontinued Blackberry Messenger), to-do lists, to-do lists, etc., plus mobile phone functions such as telephony, SMS, MMS and web browsing. Unlike a traditional PDA, the Blackberry user does not have to worry about synchronizing the data.

BlackBerry devices up to BlackBerry OS 7.1 had to be connected via the BIS option to establish a data connection. For business customers, the BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server, from version 12 BlackBerry Enterprise Services) is available, which is set up on-premises or in the cloud and establishes communication via the BlackBerry Network Operation Center (NOC). BlackBerry rebranded with version 12.6. The vendor now offers to manage all mobile endpoints through its in-house server software and NOC. Since then, the name Unified Endpoint Manager (UEM) has been used for the EMM system.

With Blackberry devices, emails, calendar entries, notes and address book entries are transferred from the Blackberry NOC to the smartphone via push service. The device is therefore always kept up to date as long as there is a data connection. At the same time, it enables immediate notification and delivery of new e-mails and appointments in real time. Another important function results from the Mobile Data System (MDS), which makes it possible to make other data from the company network - from ERP systems, databases, etc. - accessible on the Blackberry. For example, price or stock information can be called up, order processes triggered or customer data changed.

Blackberry technology deliberately keeps the amount of data to be transmitted small: the Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) processes all data specially, compresses it and then outputs it to the end device in portions. Only when the user needs more data is it requested by the device. The request is made without the user noticing or having to wait. In this way, MByte-sized files (such as PDF or Office files) can be opened quickly despite a GPRS or EDGE connection (for example, on the train): The BES opens the attachment on demand, converts it into a text-oriented file and sends it to the client in a bundle. Via POP3 protocol, the server would send the whole file unchanged to the client: That is, the user cannot open the file until it is fully downloaded; the user would need a powerful terminal device to be able to process larger files appropriately. In addition, all traffic from the server out of the corporate network to the smartphone and back is encrypted. The original Blackberry devices can also be set to not only secure the device content via password, but also to encrypt it.

The Blackberry service can only be used on older devices (before the introduction of OS 10) with a special BIS option, which must be booked separately for the mobile phone card with the mobile phone operator. This so-called "Blackberry option" includes a basic fee and a fee for the commissioned data volume. For the Blackberry Push service, with about 500 e-mails per month and calendar use of about 100 entries per week, hardly more than 1 MB per month is consumed.

Since Blackberry OS 7.0, the DocumentsToGo software from DataViz has been part of the operating system; documents and file attachments can thus also be viewed natively. The editing function of Office documents is also possible. The software enables the creation of Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint files, for example.