The rise and fall of Research In Motion, the Waterloo, Ont., company behind the infamous BlackBerry, was chronicled by Globe and Mail journalists over nearly four decades. Now, the company’s story can be seen in theatres across the country. BlackBerry, directed by Canadian Matt Johnson, is loosely based on the 2015 book written by Globe and Mail journalists Sean Silcoff and Jacquie McNish (the latter of whom later moved to The Wall Street Journal).
Globe film critic Barry Hertz writes that BlackBerry is “Canadian cinema’s answer to The Social Network. This is a relentlessly live-wire film that deserves its spotlight on the world stage.” The movie, he continues, “is funny, fast and nerve-rattling. And it is always – always – intensely entertaining.”
Over the years, the company’s keyboard-equipped smartphone earned it the devotion of some of the world’s most famous faces – from Barack Obama to Kim Kardashian.
Reminisce about the company’s tech and how far smartphones have come with these images and cartoons from The Globe and Mail’s archives.
2000
From Dec. 6, 2000, a BlackBerry wireless e-mail pager.Tibor Kolley/The Globe and Mail
The BlackBerry Wireless Handheld 950, photographed above, was the first ever BlackBerry-branded device.
The BlackBerry Wireless Handheld 957, released in 2000. A review on cnet.ca said the device was 'strictly business. It functions as a mobile version of Microsoft Outlook, and that's it. There are no colors, games, or any other frills. But for busy executives who need to be connected to e-mail all the time, it does the trick.'NYT/The Associated Press
2001
Globe and Mail freelancer reporter Kira Vermond is photographed with her Blackberry pager on Sept. 7, 2001. Vermond is checking her e-mail messages in traffic.John Hryniuk
Kira Vermond considers the pros and cons of her new BlackBerry in this September, 2001, story:
My husband and I were in the grocery store and I was awaiting an important e-mail from a real estate agent. As I reached for a loaf of bread on the shelf, I felt my BlackBerry vibrate in its holder. I had an incoming message and, scrambling for the machine, I nearly dropped the bread.
My husband watched me and rolled his eyes.
“Just because someone is e-mailing you, it doesn’t mean you have to check it right away,” he said softly, patting my arm. “It’s not like a phone.”
“Then what’s the use of having something like this if you don’t plan to get back to people immediately?”
He looked at me as though I’d sprouted a new head.
“You have a choice. Either be there for everyone or be there for yourself,” was all he said before wandering off to grab some cheese.
2002
Mark Guibert, then-vice president of brand management at RIM in Waterloo, holds the BlackBerry 5810, on March 12, 2002.Lisa Malleck/The Globe and Mail
2003
In his review of the BlackBerry 6710 in The Globe and Mail in January 2003, George Emerson wrote the device was 'part pager, part computer and part high-security server software. It's a two-way radio on a microchip wired to an ingenious little keyboard, all wrapped in a sleek five-ounce package. BlackBerry relays messages, securely encrypted against eavesdroppers, over the internet and on radio waves, from desktops to handhelds, and back again.'
Jim Balsillie, Chairman and co-CEO of Reasearch In Motion Limited, holds a BlackBerry 7230 Wireless Handheld on Nov. 5 2003. The BlackBerry's screen shows The Globe and Mail's mobile site at the time.Tibor Kolley/The Globe and Mail
2004
One Globe and Mail editorial cartoon captured the sentiment around BlackBerry users - and how their loved ones felt alongside them - in this editorial cartoon published on April 28, 2004.Brian Gable/The Globe and Mail
2005
The phone addiction was already apparent in this editorial cartoon published Jan. 5, 2005.Anthony Jenkins/The Globe and Mail
In January, 2005, Jacquie McNish wrote in The Globe that employee e-mails sent on BlackBerry devices became “a potent legal weapon in an acrimonious court battle” between CIBC and a team of top executives who left the bank to form a competing investment firm.
Eric Takounlao, left, and Ken Stevenson, IT workers in the TD Centre Tower, in Toronto on July 22, 2005, after a bomb threat forced people out of the building. They each use their BlackBerry to relay information about what transpired at the office tower.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
'Let me BlackBerry you: Get a Life! We seem to have forgotten the value of being - really being - in the moment' read the caption for this editorial cartoon published July 1, 2005.Anthony Jenkins/The Globe and Mail
2006
Jeffrey Shore, a lawyer at Goodmans in commercial real estate, on Feb. 14, 2006. Since starting to work with his BlackBerry three years prior, it had become an essential tool, Shore said.Arantxa Cedillo / Veras/The Globe and Mail
Determined to develop one of the smallest and lightest smartphones in the world while staying true to the iconic BlackBerry user experience, Research In Motion announced its latest innovation with the BlackBerry Pearl on Sept. 7, 2006. This photo showing a woman using the device as a camera at the beach was part of the promotional efforts by the company to position it outside the corporate space.Roth and Ramberg
In 2006, the celebrity era of the BlackBerry truly took off. In this photo, Paris Hilton attends the Absolut Ruby Red Pre-VMA Party hosted by Pharrell Williams in New York City, on Aug. 30, 2006, with her BlackBerry in hand.infusny-52
2007
The BlackBerry 8830 World Edition smartphone was unveiled on April 25, 2007. It was the first BlackBerry smartphone capable of roaming on GSM networks outside of North America, aimed at professionals who travelled the world for work.Hand-Out
Mashing up the world's premier smartphone for mobile professionals with the web's most popular social networking site, Research in Motion launched a version of Facebook customized for BlackBerry devices in October, 2007. Called Facebook for BlackBerry, the software application used the device's push e-mail capabilities to allow instant mobile access to Facebook's social-networking features.Jim Ross/The Globe and Mail
2008
In 2007, The Globe and Mail's André Picard wrote about the BlackBerry changing health care. Paramedic Carolyn Cook (not shown) holds a BlackBerry containing an EKG sent from an ambulance, similar to the one used to save the life of heart attack victim Brian Doener, left, who speaks with Christina Morrow, centre right, at St. Mary's General Hospital in Kitchener, Ont., on Feb. 4, 2008. The transmission of EKG data directly from the ambulance to a BlackBerry-equipped cardiologist at the hospital allowed the patient to bypass the ER and head directly into a cardiac care suite, saving ER resources and precious minutes for the patient.J.P. MOCZULSKI/The Globe and Mail
Read more: The BlackBerry solution to a heart attack
The Blackberry Bold is unveiled at the Research in Motion's annual general meeting in Waterloo, Ont., on July 15, 2008. The phone's screen shows the homepage of The Globe and Mail at the time.Jim Ross/The Globe and Mail
2009
Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell shows a message that he has sent out on his BlackBerry while on his campaign bus in Vancouver, May 11, 2009. Campbell asked British Columbians to e-mail, text, use Facebook or Twitter in a effort to get more people out to vote in the province's election.JONATHAN HAYWARD/The Canadian Press
This photo accompanied a story about how people from older generations type on a Blackberry with index fingers, and not their thumbs.Peter Power/The Globe and Mail
In December, 2009, Omar El Akkad reported that “the same technology that earned Research In Motion Ltd. millions of high-value business and government customers has given the Canadian smartphone maker a black eye this week, after BlackBerry users experienced two service outages in five days.”
2010
Queen Elizabeth is shown a new BlackBerry by electronics assembler Elvira Dulic as she tours Research in Motion in Waterloo, Ont. on July 5, 2010.FRANK GUNN/The Canadian Press
The Globe reports that the BlackBerry Pearl 9100 is just Bold enough.
2011
The Blackberry Torch 9810, featuring a slide-out keyboard, is released Aug. 3, 2011.
On Aug. 17, 2011, four significant Canadian inventions - the electric oven, the electric wheelchair, the cardiac pacemaker and the BlackBerry - were honoured with the release of four domestic-rate commemorative stamps in the Canadian Innovations series.
In an image that would become familiar as a meme, Hillary Clinton, then the secretary of state, checks her BlackBerry inside a C-17 military plane upon her departure from Malta, bound for Tripoli, Libya, on Oct. 18, 2011.The New York Times
2012
BlackBerry smartphones displayed at a Rogers store in Montreal on June 26, 2012.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
2013
The BlackBerry 10 is shown by Arun Kumar, a senior product manager for BlackBerry during the global launch of the new smartphones in Toronto on January 30, 2013.Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
A Globe and Mail investigation, published September 27, 2013, tells the story of how BlackBerry blew it. The story revealed that shortly after the release of the first iPhone, Verizon asked BlackBerry to create a touchscreen “iPhone killer.” But the result was a flop, so Verizon turned to Motorola and Google instead.
2014
BlackBerry CEO John Chen shows off the Passport phone after the company's annual general meeting in Waterloo, Ont., June 19, 2014.Dave Chidley/The Canadian Press
“I love my BlackBerry,” Kim Kardashian told a tech industry crowd at the Code Mobile conference in California on October 27, 2014. “It’s my heart and soul – I love it and I’ll never get rid of it.”
Noted BlackBerry fan and then-U.S. President Barack Obama holds up his BlackBerry device upon returning inside the White House to retrieve it, after boarding Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House in November, 2014.LARRY DOWNING/Reuters
The Globe and Mail's Technology Editor Shane Dingman reviews BlackBerry's smartphone, the Passport. This video first published in 2014.
Globe and Mail Update
2015
The BlackBerry Leap smartphone device is shown on March, 2015.Bloomberg
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, by Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff, is published in 2015.
Read an excerpt from Losing the Signal: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of BlackBerry.
2016
A look at the sentiment around the BlackBerry as it faded from use in 2016.
Globe and Mail Update