BlackBerry History – Years of Model Devices

However, RIM didn’t stop there. The developers of BlackBerry continued on with the BlackBerry 9000 series which released the Bold, Storm, Tour, Style and Touch BlackBerrys; and so the development of smarter and smarter phones and devices continues for RIM and BlackBerry.

BlackBerry smartphones are among the best-selling and most popular mobile phones ever released onto the market. With the device’s current rank and fame in the competition for the finest and hottest smartphone, not many people are aware that the BlackBerry actually had a slow start in this race. Nowadays, BlackBerry smartphones take on the roles of a personal digital assistant (PDA) and a portable media player; however, this was not always the case.

Research in Motion (RIM) released its first BlackBerry device in 1999: the 850. The 850 functioned as a two-way pager and looked nothing like the BlackBerry models we know today. Wireless Internet, paging, an organizer and a calendar are only some of the BlackBerry apps in the 850.

Their next model came in 2002, three years after the first launch of a BlackBerry model. This time, the developers decided to adopt a PDA-style look instead of the original pager-style design. The new device kept most of the potential and functions of the pager, with the addition of increased memory, speakers and a microphone.

The BlackBerry 5000 and 6000 series began their release in 2002, but didn’t take off until 2003 when RIM decided to release the BlackBerry 6750 for Verizon Wireless. It still held the same BlackBerry apps as those in the earlier series and still catered mostly to business consumers.

All through these changes, BlackBerry support was only capable of providing a monochrome display. It wasn’t until the release of the BlackBerry 7000 series that RIM began to integrate color screens into the BlackBerry features list. The first BlackBerry model with Bluetooth, the 7290, was the last release of the 7000 series.

All these models relied on the QWERTY keyboard, except for the BlackBerry series 7100, where RIM gave its consumers a taste of their SureType keyboard. It’s pretty much the same as the multi-tap keyboards in most phones with the added twist of assigning only two characters on a single button. In effect, the BlackBerry’s original wide berth was trimmed, adding to its appeal. The 7100 series was also the first to be marketed to the average shopper instead of just corporate consumers.

RIM continued its aggressive pursuit for consumer apps and features through the BlackBerry 8000 series. Built-in cameras, media players, Wi-Fi capabilities and instant messaging were only a few of the additional applications. This series was the beginning of the rise of non-business consumers for BlackBerry phones. Names like Electron, Pearl and Curve are all from this series. After the release of these phones, BlackBerry subscriptions rose to five million.