For many, BlackBerry was that somewhat bulky phone with its small physical keyboard, its scroll wheel or central ball, and users capable of writing a complete email with both thumbs without even looking at the screen.
For a few years, owning a BlackBerry almost gave the impression of having a very important professional life. You received your emails instantly, you chatted on BBM, and you tapped frantically on public transport as if an entire multinational corporation depended on your reply.
Then the iPhone arrived, touchscreens swept everything away, and BlackBerry gradually disappeared from pockets. The brand seemed destined to join Ericsson, Sagem, Siemens, and all the other residents of the great graveyard of forgotten phones.
Except BlackBerry hasn't completely disappeared. The smartphones themselves are definitely dead. The company that made them simply got rid of its keyboards to become a software company about which the general public knows almost nothing.
A look back at a digital disaster, a sad farewell and a survival that was, to say the least, discreet.
Bye Bye BlackBerry
In 1999, the first BlackBerry was marketed by RIM. At that time, BlackBerry was only the brand name for devices manufactured by Research In Motion, a Canadian company founded in 1984.
This phone, one of the first smartphones, was a true revolution. It allowed users to receive their emails instantly thanks to the "push" function, and offered a communication service secure, office tools… In fact, companies, administrations and especially the American government are building their fleets with these Canadian smartphones.
In 2007, Apple released the iPhone and revolutionized the smartphone market. From that moment on, nothing would be the same for the Canadian company.
Even though, initially, the all-touchscreen smartphone wasn't considered a "credible" rival and BlackBerry continued its upward trajectory, most manufacturers quickly adopted Apple's keyboardless design. But the Canadians stubbornly persisted in producing their devices with QWERTY keyboards, as practical as they were boring…
In 2008, RIM attempted to respond by launching the BlackBerry Storm. However, this phone received a decidedly mixed reception. While Apple and Google were developing full-fledged app stores, BlackBerry took a year to react, and even then, only half-heartedly, by launching its BlackBerry App World.
From that time onward, the slow decline was obvious to keen observers. Rarely has a company adored by its customers and a technological flagship of a country managed to commit hara-kiri so simply and quickly.
Between 2009 and 2013, Apple, Samsung, Sony and a whole host of Android manufacturers offered new products, new designs and above all thousands of applications.
In four years, BlackBerry has been thrashing about like an earthworm on a fire, churning out models left and right without any of them truly meeting new expectations. Meanwhile, there was also a three-day blackout, from October 10th to 13th, 2011: no emails, no BlackBerry, no communication for three days. An eternity for the tens of millions of users worldwide.
Gradually, companies, despite being the primary driver of RIM development, are letting their employees choose their own phones. Often an iPhone or a Samsung.
It must be said that the smartphone revolution initiated by Apple has claimed many victims. Ericsson, Sagem, Siemens, and Palm come to mind. But none of them held such a prominent place in the pockets of professionals as BlackBerry.
RIM becomes BlackBerry and entrusts its phones to TCL
On January 30, 2013, Research In Motion officially changed its name to BlackBerry. The brand of its phones had become far more well-known than the company itself. RIM therefore disappeared just as BlackBerry 10 and the new Z10 and Q10 were being launched, intended to put the company back on track.
That will not be enough.
In September 2013, the Canadian fund Fairfax Financial considered acquiring BlackBerry for $4,7 billion. However, the announced sale ultimately fell through. Instead, Fairfax and other investors injected $1 billion into the company, while John Chen took over as CEO.
BlackBerry released a few more devices, including the Passport, the Classic, and the Priv, its first Android smartphone. Then the company finally realized that manufacturing phones was becoming difficult when almost no one wanted to buy them anymore.
In 2016, it therefore stopped designing its own smartphones and granted licenses to other manufacturers. The Chinese company TCL Communication notably acquired the right to produce devices under the BlackBerry name.
This collaboration gave birth to the KeyOne in 2017, then to the Key2 and Key2 LE in 2018. They feature Android, a touch screen and the famous physical keyboard for those who stubbornly refuse to type their messages on a glass plate.
The devices aren't bad. They're simply arriving on a market where the BlackBerry keyboard has become a curiosity reserved for a few nostalgics and a handful of professionals.
TCL eventually threw in the towel as well. Sales of new BlackBerry devices ceased on August 31, 2020.
An American company called OnwardMobility is promising a new BlackBerry running Android, compatible with 5G and, of course, equipped with a physical keyboard. The phone is expected to be released in 2021.
He will never get out.
The project falls behind schedule, gradually disappears from view, and then OnwardMobility closes its doors in February 2022. The famous BlackBerry 5G thus joins the great graveyard of technological products announced with enthusiasm and buried before even having their cardboard box.
On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry also ended support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, and PlayBook OS. Affected devices could no longer rely on reliable mobile data, calls, SMS, or even some Wi-Fi connections. BlackBerry devices running Android were not affected, but for older BlackBerry models, support was definitively discontinued.
But BlackBerry is not dead
That's it for the phones. Because the company BlackBerry LimitedShe, however, definitely exists.
It operates primarily around two activities: QNX and secure communications. Nothing that would particularly make you want to camp out in front of a store for three days to buy the latest model, but sectors that are considerably more serious.
QNX is an operating system designed for embedded systems. It is found in cars, where it powers the digital dashboard, multimedia system, and certain driver assistance features. It is also used in medical equipment, robots, and industrial installations.
In other words, it's entirely possible to use BlackBerry without realizing it. You may no longer have a small keyboard in your pocket, but your car could have a piece of BlackBerry software under the hood.
The company also provides secure communication tools to governments, businesses, and critical infrastructure. BlackBerry UEM, for example, is used to manage and protect business devices, while SecuSUITE secures calls, messages, and files.
BlackBerry had also ventured more openly into cybersecurity by acquiring Cylance in 2019. This business was eventually sold to Arctic Wolf in 2025, as the company preferred to focus on QNX and its secure communications solutions.
BlackBerry phones are therefore truly dead. The last hope of seeing them return disappeared with OnwardMobility in 2022, and the old in-house services were discontinued the same year.
But BlackBerry didn't become a pile of ashes. The former RIM abandoned smartphones, changed its business, and took refuge in software that no one sees, but that many machines use.
The small physical keyboard has lost the war. Its manufacturer, however, has simply changed battlefields.
