The boom and fall of Blackberry, the status symbol that the iPhone turned into history

Before the absolute domain of the format imposed by smartphones with any screen without space for the keys, in half the world who left the cod was nokia. In the other half was Blackberry. Its mobile phones, with a reliable QWERTY keyboard and technology to the last, were synonym for quality, even status.

Not only public figures had a Blackberry, but their use in business environments was practically mandatory at certain levels, and the company got that His models were desired by the general public. In that area, they had a very special model: the Blackberry Pearl 8100. It was something similar to what is currently happening with the iPhone, but beyond ‘Fardar’, having a Blackberry allowed access to a free instant messaging service among its users.

At a time when SMS kept costing money (unless they were included in the rate) and were not as immediate as a chat, Blackberry Messenger It was consolidated as a kind of Microsoft Messenger to talk to friends and family. In 2009, everyone wanted to have a Blackberry mobile and dominated the market with almost 21% share.

However, nothing lasts forever and, as soon as the iPhone and the Android mobiles They began to popular, the company’s sales fell into dive. The reason for his success was that physical keyboard that had stopped making sense and to which the brand He wanted to cling without successeven testing hybrid alternatives and Systems like Blackberry 10 To compete against Android. Spoiler: They did not set.

And that is only a tip of the Blackberry iceberg, a story that my partner Ana Boria tells perfectly in the video we leave to lead this article, with the perfect storm that led to the loud fall of the mythical Blackberry.

And it is curious because, many years later and already in 2025, there are users who continue to remember the fantastic times of that innovative Blackberry and, especially its keyboard and touchpad with those who differentiated themselves from the competition. From outside, as someone who never had a Blackberry, I can only say that it is even sorry for the story of a company that, obviously, was buried by a progress that did not see coming and who did not know how to adapt.

Although … well, it’s not like so many other companies that disappeared without a trace. Although their attempts to return to the mobile segment did not work, at least they managed to reinvent themselves in other fields. AND It seems that nothing is going to him.

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