Celebrating 35 Years of BlackBerry an Icon of the Past Present Future

The history of human civilization is full of inventions that changed the world.  In particular, the history of communication is a fascinating story with one date being especially significant.

It was on March 7 that Alexander Graham Bell was granted the patent for the telephone, a technology that he invented in Canada.  The invention of the telephone completely transformed society and so it is no surprise the patent is considered the most valuable single patent ever issued.

It feels like no coincidence that the next revolution in communication also began on March 7.  It was on this date 35 years ago, in Canada no less, that Research In Motion (RIM) was founded.

Since 1984 BlackBerry, or RIM as it was known at the time, has been on a mission to advance how the world communicates.  At the time of the company’s inception the secure communications technologies that would make RIM a global icon existed only in fiction and the mind of a man named Mike Lazaridis, a self-professed Star Trek superfan.  He had two key beliefs at the time, that humans have an inherent need to communicate and that industrial espionage was a danger most likely to be realized through hacking.

The first RIM innovation was a DigiSync Film KeyKode Reader, enabling movie editors to read data on motion picture film.  It cut hours from post-production work, marking the birth of productivity as another component of the DNA BlackBerry would become renowned for.  The technology won RIM an Academy Award and an Emmy.

The company went on to develop other award winning ‘firsts’ in communications technology, such as the Mobitex Protocol Converter, the Mobitex point-of-sale terminal and the two-way messaging pager.  It was in 2002 that the first BlackBerry smartphone was launched, the BlackBerry 5810™, and innovations that followed included copy and paste on mobile and mobile instant messaging.  BlackBerry smartphones revolutionized the way the world communicates and delivered massive productivity gains for enterprises through enabling workforce mobility and data security.

It was in 2013 that RIM officially changed its name to BlackBerry and the next chapter in the company’s journey commenced.  A journey that positions BlackBerry to be the platform that will enable the Internet of Things to fulfill its potential.

Recognizing that software is the future of communications technology innovation and the root of world-class security, we paved a path forward that transformed BlackBerry into a software company. A path that will deliver the next revolution in how people live and work.

Our goal is to bring BlackBerry-grade technology to everybody and everything as we believe you deserve world-class connectivity and security and the peace of mind that comes with it.  It is with this foundation that the Internet of Things can become a reality.  A reality that has vast benefits, from improving the detection and treatment of disease, to enabling developing countries to grow and many more valuable applications that have not yet been explored or defined.

Today our software is trusted by the world’s most important organizations, including the G7, 16 of the G20, NATO, banks, healthcare companies and higher-education establishments, and is embedded in millions and millions of things.  You can find BlackBerry in smart watches, medical devices, cars, trains, robots, smart meters, TV broadcast equipment, wind turbines, hydroelectric plants, pilot training simulators, mail-sorting machines, tablets, smartphones and more.

As we celebrate our 35th birthday and 35 years of innovation, we would like to thank our customers and partners of the past, present and future for their great support and trust.  We live and breathe a customer-first mindset every day and in everything we do and, so as the world changes, our foundational ethics and values and our innovation momentum are unwavering.

The future is securely connected, the future is BlackBerry, the future is now.