BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and
smartphoneA smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
devices developed and designed by
CanadianCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
company
Research In MotionResearch In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
(RIM) since 1999.
BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as
personal digital assistantA personal digital assistant , also known as a palmtop computer, or personal data assistant, is a mobile device that functions as a personal information manager. Current PDAs often have the ability to connect to the Internet...
s,
portable media playerA portable media player or digital audio player, is a consumer electronics device that is capable of storing and playing digital media such as audio, images, video, documents, etc. the data is typically stored on a hard drive, microdrive, or flash memory. In contrast, analog portable audio...
s, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more. They are primarily known for their ability to send and receive (
pushPush technology, or server push, describes a style of Internet-based communication where the request for a given transaction is initiated by the publisher or central server...
) email and instant messages while maintaining a high level of security through on-device message encryption. Blackberry devices support a large variety of instant messaging features, including
BlackBerry MessengerBlackBerry Messenger is a proprietary Internet-based instant messenger application included on BlackBerry devices which allows messaging between BlackBerry users.It was developed by Research In Motion , maker of the BlackBerry device...
.
BlackBerry commands a 11.7% share of worldwide smartphone sales, making it the fourth most popular device manufacturer after
GoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
,
Sony EricssonSony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB is a joint venture established on October 1, 2001 by the Japanese consumer electronics company Sony Corporation and the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson to manufacture mobile phones....
, and Apple. The consumer BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries worldwide on over 500 mobile service operators using various mobile technologies. As of October 2011, there were seventy million subscribers worldwide to BlackBerry.
Modern GSM-based BlackBerry handhelds incorporate an
ARMARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
7, 9 or ARM 11 processor, while older BlackBerry 950 and 957 handhelds used
Intel 80386The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
processors. The latest BlackBerry models (Torch 9850/9860, Torch 9810, and Bold 9900/9930) have a 1.2 GHz MSM8255 Snapdragon Processor, 768 MB system memory], and 8 GB of on-board storage. All BlackBerrys after OS 5 support up to 32 GB
microSDSecure Digital is a non-volatile memory card format developed by the SD Card Association for use in portable devices. The SD technology is used by more than 400 brands across dozens of product categories and more than 8,000 models, and is considered the de-facto industry standard.Secure Digital...
cards.
History
The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany. The name BlackBerry was coined by the marketing company
Lexicon BrandingLexicon Branding, Inc., is an American marketing firm founded in 1982 by David Placek. It focuses on selecting brand names for companies and products...
.
In 2003, the more commonly known smartphone BlackBerry was released, which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing, Web browsing and other wireless information services. It is an example of a
convergentTelecommunications convergence, network convergence or simply convergence are broad terms used to describe emerging telecommunications technologies, and network architecture used to migrate multiple communications services into a single network...
device. The original BlackBerry devices, the RIM 850 and 857, used the
DataTacDataTAC is a wireless data network technology originally developed by Motorola and deployed in the United States as the ARDIS network. DataTAC was also marketed in the mid-1990s as MobileData by Telecom Australia, and is still used by Bell Mobility as a paging network in Canada...
network.
BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on email. RIM currently offers BlackBerry email service to non-BlackBerry devices, such as the Palm Treo, through its BlackBerry Connect software.
The original BlackBerry device had a
monochromeMonochrome describes paintings, drawings, design, or photographs in one color or shades of one color. A monochromatic object or image has colors in shades of limited colors or hues. Images using only shades of grey are called grayscale or black-and-white...
display, but all current models have color displays. All models, except for the Storm series and the all-touch Torch 9850 had a built-in
QWERTYQWERTY is the most common modern-day keyboard layout. The name comes from the first six letters appearing in the topleft letter row of the keyboard, read left to right: Q-W-E-R-T-Y. The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden typewriter and sold to Remington in the...
keyboardIn computing, a keyboard is a typewriter-style keyboard, which uses an arrangement of buttons or keys, to act as mechanical levers or electronic switches...
, optimized for "
thumbingThumbing may refer to:*The act of typing on a small keyboard solely using the thumbs. It is primarily used with mobile phones for SMS text messaging, and also with devices such as PDAs with built-in keyboards....
", the use of only the thumbs to type. The Storm 1 and Storm 2 include a SureType keypad for typing. Originally, system navigation was achieved with the use of a scroll wheel mounted on the right side of phones prior to the 8700. The trackwheel was replaced by the trackball with the introduction of the Pearl series which allowed for 4 way scrolling. The trackball was replaced by the optical trackpad with the introduction of the Curve 8500 series. Models made to use
iDENFor other uses of the word, see Iden The Iden was an English automobile manufactured from 1904 until 1907. Designed by George Iden, formerly of Daimler, they were four-cylinder 10/17 hp and 25/35 hp shaft-driven cars; each came with "Idens's frictionless radial gearbox"....
networks such as Nextel and
MikeMike is a Canadian mobile phone and push-to-talk network, launched in 1996 using the proprietary iDEN platform from Motorola. The network was initially launched by Clearnet in the Windsor to Québec corridor, while its roll-out in western Canada followed in 1997...
also incorporate a
push-to-talkPush-to-talk , also known as Press-to-Transmit, is a method of conversing on half-duplex communication lines, including two-way radio, using a momentary button to switch from voice reception mode to transmit mode....
(PTT) feature, similar to a
two-way radioA two-way radio is a radio that can both transmit and receive , unlike a broadcast receiver which only receives content. The term refers to a personal radio transceiver that allows the operator to have a two-way conversation with other similar radios operating on the same radio frequency...
.
Operating system
The
operating systemAn operating system is a set of programs that manage computer hardware resources and provide common services for application software. The operating system is the most important type of system software in a computer system...
used by BlackBerry devices is a proprietary multitasking environment developed by RIM. The operating system is designed for use of input devices such as the track wheel, track ball, and track pad. The OS provides support for Java
MIDPMobile Information Device Profile is a specification published for the use of Java on embedded devices such as mobile phones and PDAs. MIDP is part of the Java Platform, Micro Edition framework and sits on top of Connected Limited Device Configuration , a set of lower level programming...
1.0 and
WAPWireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
1.2. Previous versions allowed wireless synchronization with
Microsoft Exchange ServerMicrosoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
email and calendar, as well as with Lotus Domino email. OS 5.0 provides a subset of MIDP 2.0, and allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Exchange email, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts, and adds support for
Novell GroupWiseGroupWise is a messaging and collaborative software platform from Novell that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The platform consists of the client software, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the server...
and
Lotus NotesLotus Notes is the client of a collaborative platform originally created by Lotus Development Corp. in 1989. In 1995 Lotus was acquired by IBM and became known as the Lotus Development division of IBM and is now part of the IBM Software Group...
. The Blackberry Curve 9360, Blackberry Torch 9810, Bold 9900/9930, and Torch 9850/9860 feature the most recent Blackberry OS 7 as of October 2011).
Third-party developers can write software using these APIs, and proprietary BlackBerry APIs as well. Any application that makes use of certain restricted functionality must be
digitally signedA digital signature or digital signature scheme is a mathematical scheme for demonstrating the authenticity of a digital message or document. A valid digital signature gives a recipient reason to believe that the message was created by a known sender, and that it was not altered in transit...
so that it can be associated to a developer account at RIM. This signing procedure guarantees the authorship of an application but does not guarantee the quality or security of the code. RIM provides tools for developing applications and themes for BlackBerry. Applications and themes can be loaded onto BlackBerry devices through BlackBerry App World, Over The Air (OTA) through the BlackBerry mobile browser, or through BlackBerry Desktop Manager.
BlackBerry Messenger
BlackBerry devices use the proprietary
BlackBerry MessengerBlackBerry Messenger is a proprietary Internet-based instant messenger application included on BlackBerry devices which allows messaging between BlackBerry users.It was developed by Research In Motion , maker of the BlackBerry device...
, also known as BBM, software for sending and receiving encrypted instant messages, voice notes, images and videos via BlackBerry PIN. Some of the features of BBM include groups, bar-code scanning, lists, shared calendars, BBM Music and integration with apps and games using the BBM social platform.
Third-party software
Third-party software available for use on BlackBerry devices includes full-featured database management systems, which can be used to support
customer relationship managementCustomer relationship management is a widely implemented strategy for managing a company’s interactions with customers, clients and sales prospects. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes—principally sales activities, but also those for marketing,...
clients and other applications that must manage large volumes of potentially complex data.
In March 2011, RIM announced an optional Android player that could play applications developed for the android system would be available for the
Blackberry PlaybookThe BlackBerry PlayBook is a tablet computer by Research In Motion , best known for the BlackBerry smartphone. It competes against Apple's iPad and a slew of Android-powered tablets....
, RIM's first entry in the tablet market.
On August 24, 2011
Bloomberg News reported unofficial rumors that BlackBerry devices would be able to run Android applications when RIM brings QNX and the Android App Player to BlackBerry.
On October 20, 2011 RIM officially announced that android applications could run, unmodified, on the blackberry tablet and the newest blackberry phones, using the newest version of its operating system.
CPU
The latest Blackberry devices such as the Bold 9900/9930, Torch 9810, 9860/9860 feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8260 CPU clocked at 1.2 GHz. Entry-level models, such as the Curve 9360, feature a Marvell PXA940 clocked at 800 MHz. Previous Blackberry devices, such as the BlackBerry 9000 series, were equipped with XScale 624 MHz processors. The BlackBerry Curve 8520 featured a 512 MHz processor, while the Bold 9700 featured a newer version of the Bold 9000's processor, but is clocked at the same speed. Early BlackBerry devices, such as the
BlackBerry 950BlackBerry 950 was an early BlackBerry model by Canadian smartphone manufacturer Research in Motion. There were two editions, the Exchange Edition and the Internet Edition, both identical in hardware and differing only in the provided software: the Exchange Edition could connect to corporate e-mail...
, used
Intel 80386The Intel 80386, also known as the i386, or just 386, was a 32-bit microprocessor introduced by Intel in 1985. The first versions had 275,000 transistors and were used as the central processing unit of many workstations and high-end personal computers of the time...
-based processors. BlackBerry 8000 series smartphones, such as the 8700 and the Pearl, are based on the 312 MHz
ARMARM is a 32-bit reduced instruction set computer instruction set architecture developed by ARM Holdings. It was named the Advanced RISC Machine, and before that, the Acorn RISC Machine. The ARM architecture is the most widely used 32-bit ISA in numbers produced...
XScaleThe XScale, a microprocessor core, is Intel's and Marvell's implementation of the ARMv5 architecture, and consists of several distinct families: IXP, IXC, IOP, PXA and CE . Intel sold the PXA family to Marvell Technology Group in June 2006....
ARMv5TE PXA900. An exception to this is the BlackBerry 8707 which is based on the 80 MHz Qualcomm 3250 chipset; this was due to the PXA900 chipset not supporting 3G networks. The 80 MHz processor in the BlackBerry 8707 meant the device was often slower to download and render web pages over 3G than the 8700 was over EDGE networks.
Connectivity
BlackBerry Enterprise Server
BlackBerry smartphones can be integrated into an organization's email system through a software package called
BlackBerry Enterprise ServerBlackBerry Enterprise Server designates the middleware software package that is part of the BlackBerry wireless platform supplied by Research In Motion...
(BES). Versions of BES are available for
Microsoft ExchangeMicrosoft Exchange Server is the server side of a client–server, collaborative application product developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Servers line of server products and is used by enterprises using Microsoft infrastructure products...
, Lotus Domino and
Novell GroupWiseGroupWise is a messaging and collaborative software platform from Novell that supports email, calendaring, personal information management, instant messaging, and document management. The platform consists of the client software, which is available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and the server...
. Google has made a Connector for BES which makes BES available for
Google AppsGoogle Apps is a service from Google providing independently customizable versions of several Google products under a custom domain name. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Groups, Google Calendar, Talk, Docs and...
as well. While individual users may be able to use a wireless provider's email services without having to install BES themselves, organizations with multiple users usually run BES on their own network. Some third-party companies provide hosted BES solutions. Every BlackBerry has an ID called a BlackBerry PIN, which is used to identify the device to the BES. BlackBerry now provides a free BES software called BES Express (BESX).
BES acts as an email relay for corporate accounts so that users always have access to their email. The software monitors the user's local Inbox, and when a new message comes in, it picks up the message and passes it to RIM's
Network Operations CenterA network operations center is one or more locations from which control is exercised over a computer, television broadcast, or telecommunications network....
(NOC). The messages are then relayed to the user's wireless provider, which in turn delivers them to the user's BlackBerry device.
This is called push email, because all new emails, contacts, task entries, memopad entries, and calendar entries are pushed out to the BlackBerry device automatically and instantaneously (as opposed to the user synchronizing the data manually or having the device poll the server at intervals). BlackBerry also supports polling email, through third party applications. The messaging system built in to the BlackBerry only understands how to receive messages from a BES or the BIS, these services handle the connections to the user's mail providers. Device storage also enables the mobile user to access all data off-line in areas without wireless service. When the user reconnects to wireless service, the BES sends the latest data.
An included feature in the newer models of the BlackBerry is the ability for it to quickly track your current location through
trilaterationIn geometry, trilateration is the process of determinating absolute or relative locations of points by measurement of distances, using the geometry of circles, spheres or triangles. In addition to its interest as a geometric problem, trilateration does have practical applications in surveying and...
without the use of GPS, thus saving battery life and time. Trilateration can be used as a quick, less battery intensive way to provide location-aware applications with the co-ordinates of the user. However, the accuracy of BlackBerry trilateration is less than that of GPS due to a number of factors, including cell tower blockage by large buildings, mountains, or distance.
BES also provides handhelds with TCP/IP connectivity accessed through a component called MDS (Mobile Data System) Connection Service. This allows for custom application development using data streams on BlackBerry devices based on the
Sun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
Java ME platform.
In addition, BES provides network security, in the form of
Triple DESIn cryptography, Triple DES is the common name for the Triple Data Encryption Algorithm block cipher, which applies the Data Encryption Standard cipher algorithm three times to each data block....
or, more recently,
AESAdvanced Encryption Standard is a specification for the encryption of electronic data. It has been adopted by the U.S. government and is now used worldwide. It supersedes DES...
encryption of all data (both email and MDS traffic) that travels between the BlackBerry handheld and a BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
Most providers offer flat monthly pricing for unlimited data between BlackBerry units and BES. In addition to receiving email, organizations can make
intranetAn intranet is a computer network that uses Internet Protocol technology to securely share any part of an organization's information or network operating system within that organization. The term is used in contrast to internet, a network between organizations, and instead refers to a network...
s or custom internal applications with unmetered
trafficIn computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
.
With more recent versions of the BlackBerry platform, the MDS is no longer a requirement for wireless data access. Starting with OS 3.8 or 4.0, BlackBerry handhelds can access the Internet (i.e. TCP/IP access) without an MDS – formerly only email and
WAPWireless Application Protocol is a technical standard for accessing information over a mobile wireless network.A WAP browser is a web browser for mobile devices such as mobile phones that uses the protocol.Before the introduction of WAP, mobile service providers had limited opportunities to offer...
access was possible without a BES/MDS. The BES/MDS is still required for secure email, data access, and applications that require WAP from carriers that do not allow WAP access.
BlackBerry Internet Service
The primary alternative to using BlackBerry Enterprise Server is to use the
BlackBerry Internet ServiceThe BlackBerry Internet Service is a service that provides BlackBerry smartphone users with access to Internet browsing, allows email messaging, instant messaging using the BlackBerry Messenger service, and more.The service also allows...
. BlackBerry Internet Service, or BIS is available in 91 countries internationally. BlackBerry Internet Service was developed primarily for the average consumer rather than for the business consumer. BlackBerry Internet Service allows POP3 and IMAP email integration for an individual personal user. However, the integration features only one-way synchronization; changes to messages on the device are not reflected back to the email server. BlackBerry Internet Service allows up to 10 email accounts to be accessed, including many popular email accounts such as Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and AOL. BlackBerry Internet Service also allows for the function of the push capabilities in various other BlackBerry Applications. Various applications developed by RIM for BlackBerry utilize the push capabilities of BIS, such as the Instant Messaging clients, Google Talk, Windows Live Messenger and Yahoo Messenger. Social Networks Facebook, Myspace and Twitter's notification system is accessed through BIS, allowing for push notifications for them.
Phones with BlackBerry email client
Several non-BlackBerry mobile phones have been released featuring the BlackBerry email client which connects to BlackBerry servers. Many of these phones have full QWERTY keyboards
- AT&T Tilt
- HTC Advantage X7500
The HTC Advantage X7500 or HTC Athena is a Windows Mobile 5.0 Pocket PC Phone Edition based smartphone manufactured by HTC Corporation . The Athena is sold by T-Mobile under the name T-Mobile Ameo. The Ameo launched in Europe in March, 2007...
- HTC TyTN
The HTC TyTN is an Internet-enabled Windows Mobile Pocket PC smartphone designed and marketed by High Tech Computer Corporation of Taiwan. It has a touchscreen with a left-side slide-out QWERTY keyboard. The TyTN's functions include those of a camera phone and a portable media player in addition...
- Motorola MPx220, some models
- Nokia 6810
- Nokia 6820
- Nokia 9300
The Nokia 9300 is a Nokia Series 80 Symbian Smartphone introduced in 2005. It is used as a normal though bulky mobile phone in closed mode, when it is flipped open it can be used like a very small notebook computer with a 640×200 screen...
- Nokia 9300i
- Nokia 9500
Nokia 9500 Communicator is a smartphone produced by Nokia, introduced in 2004. It runs on the Symbian-based Series 90 platform, albeit disguised to look like the Series 80 platform....
- Nokia Eseries
The Nokia Eseries consists of business-oriented smartphones, with emphasis on enhanced connectivity and support for corporate e-mail push services. All devices have advanced office features...
phones, except models Nokia E66The Nokia E66 is a slider smartphone in the Nokia Eseries range, a S60 platform third edition device with slide action targeting business users. It is a successor to the Nokia E65 with which it shares many features....
, Nokia E71The Nokia E71 is a smartphone from the Eseries range with a QWERTY keyboard targeting business users worldwide. It runs on Symbian OS v9.2, with a Series 60 3rd Edition, second generation Feature Pack 1. The Nokia E71 succeeded the Nokia E61/61i models, building on the base design and form factor...
- Qtek 9100
- Qtek 9000
- Samsung t719
- Siemens
Siemens AG is a German multinational conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company....
SK65
- Sony Ericsson P910
The Sony Ericsson P910 is a smartphone by Sony Ericsson introduced in 2004 and the successor of the Sony Ericsson P900. The P910 has a full QWERTY keyboard on the back of the flip The biggest change from the P900 to the P910 is that the P910 now supports Memory Stick PRO Duo and the phone's...
- Sony Ericsson P990
Sony Ericsson P990 is a smartphone and the successor of Sony Ericsson P910. The phone uses the UIQ 3 software platform, which is based upon Symbian OS 9.1. It was released in August 2006. The P990 has a numeric keypad that flips open to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard below the display, on the phone...
- Sony Ericsson M600i
- Sony Ericsson P1
The Sony Ericsson P1 is a smartphone and the successor of the P990. It integrates many of the hardware features of the P990 in the form factor of the M600. It was announced on 8 May 2007. There is a Chinese version of P1 called P1c...
The BlackBerry Store
In December 2007 a BlackBerry Store opened in Farmington Hills, Michigan. , it is the only BlackBerry store in existence, but it was not the first. There were three prior attempts at opening BlackBerry stores in Toronto, London, and Charlotte, but they eventually folded. The store offers BlackBerry device models from AT&T,
T-MobileT-Mobile International AG is a German-based holding company for Deutsche Telekom AG's various mobile communications subsidiaries outside Germany. Based in Bonn, Germany, its subsidiaries operate GSM and UMTS-based cellular networks in Europe, the United States, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
,
VerizonCellco Partnership, doing business as Verizon Wireless, is one of the largest mobile network operators in the United States. The network has 107.7 million subscribers as of 2011, making it the largest wireless service provider in America....
, and
SprintSprint Nextel Corporation is an American telecommunications company based in Overland Park, Kansas. The company owns and operates Sprint, the third largest wireless telecommunications network in the United States, with 53.4 million customers, behind Verizon Wireless and AT&T Mobility...
, the major U.S. carriers which offer smartphones.
Models
Blackberry 7 devices:
- BlackBerry Bold series (2011): BlackBerry Bold 9900/9930/9790
- BlackBerry Torch series (2011): BlackBerry Torch 9810
- BlackBerry Torch series (2011): BlackBerry Torch 9850/9860
- BlackBerry Curve series (2011): BlackBerry 9350/9360/9370/9380
Blackberry 6 devices:
- BlackBerry Torch series (2010): BlackBerry Torch 9800
- BlackBerry Curve series (2010): BlackBerry 9300/9330
- BlackBerry Style 9670 (2010)
- BlackBerry Pearl series (2010): BlackBerry Pearl 3G 9100/9105
- BlackBerry Bold series (2010-2011): BlackBerry Bold 9780/9788
Blackberry 5 devices:
- BlackBerry Bold series (2008-2010): BlackBerry Bold
The BlackBerry Bold 9000 is a line of smartphones developed by Research in Motion. The family includes the 9000 , the 9700 , the 9650 and 9780, both of which were released in 2010, 9788 released in 2011 and the 9900/9930, the first touchscreen Bold, released in August 2011...
9000/9700/9650
- Blackberry Tour series (2009):BlackBerry Tour
The BlackBerry Tour is a mobile phone developed by Research In Motion and is part of the 9600 device series. This high-end messaging phone combines the multimedia features of the Curve with the global roaming of the 8830 , plus a higher-resolution display, 3.2-megapixel auto-focus camera, 3G data...
(9630)
- BlackBerry Storm series (2009): BlackBerry Storm2 (9520/9550)
- BlackBerry Storm series (2008):BlackBerry Storm (9500/9530)
- Blackberry Curve series (2009-2010):BlackBerry Curve 8900 (8900/8910/8980)
- Blackberry Curve series(2009): BlackBerry Curve 8520/8530
Blackberry 4 and earlier devices:
- Blackberry 8800 series (2007): BlackBerry 8800/8820/8830
- Blackberry Pearl series (2006):BlackBerry Pearl
The BlackBerry Pearl is a smartphone developed by Research In Motion the first BlackBerry device with a camera and media player. It was originally released on September 12, 2006...
8100/8110/8120/8130
- Blackberry Pearl Flip series (2008): BlackBerry Pearl Flip 8220/8230
- Blackberry Curve series (2007): BlackBerry Curve 8300 (8300/8310/8320/8330/8350i)
- Early pager models: 850, 857, 950
BlackBerry 950 was an early BlackBerry model by Canadian smartphone manufacturer Research in Motion. There were two editions, the Exchange Edition and the Internet Edition, both identical in hardware and differing only in the provided software: the Exchange Edition could connect to corporate e-mail...
, 957
- Monochrome Java-based series: 5000, 6000
- First color series: 7200, 7500, 7700
- First SureType phone series: 7100
BlackBerry PIN
BlackBerry PIN is an eight character
hexadecimalIn mathematics and computer science, hexadecimal is a positional numeral system with a radix, or base, of 16. It uses sixteen distinct symbols, most often the symbols 0–9 to represent values zero to nine, and A, B, C, D, E, F to represent values ten to fifteen...
identification number assigned to each BlackBerry device. PINs cannot be changed manually on the device (though BlackBerry technicians are able to reset or update a PIN server-side), and are locked to each specific BlackBerry. BlackBerrys can message each other using the PIN directly or by using the
BlackBerry MessengerBlackBerry Messenger is a proprietary Internet-based instant messenger application included on BlackBerry devices which allows messaging between BlackBerry users.It was developed by Research In Motion , maker of the BlackBerry device...
application.
BlackBerry PINs are tracked by
BlackBerry Enterprise ServerBlackBerry Enterprise Server designates the middleware software package that is part of the BlackBerry wireless platform supplied by Research In Motion...
s, and the
BlackBerry Internet ServiceThe BlackBerry Internet Service is a service that provides BlackBerry smartphone users with access to Internet browsing, allows email messaging, instant messaging using the BlackBerry Messenger service, and more.The service also allows...
, and are used to direct messages to a BlackBerry device. Emails and any other messages, such as those from the BlackBerry Push Service, are typically directed to a BlackBerry's PIN. The message can then be routed by a RIM
Network Operations CenterA network operations center is one or more locations from which control is exercised over a computer, television broadcast, or telecommunications network....
, and sent to a carrier, which will deliver the message the last mile to the device.
RIM patent infringement litigation
In 2000 NTP sent notice of its wireless email patents to a number of companies and offered to license the patents to them. NTP brought a patent-infringement lawsuit against one of the companies,
Research In MotionResearch In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
, in the
United States District Court for the Eastern District of VirginiaThe United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia is one of two United States district courts serving the Commonwealth of Virginia...
. This court is well known for its strict adherence to timetables and deadlines, sometimes referred to as the "
rocket docketA rocket docket refers to a court or other tribunal that is noted for its speedy disposition of cases and controversies that come before it, often by maintaining strict adherence to the law as pertains to filing deadlines, etc....
", and is particularly efficient at trying patent cases.
The jury eventually found that the NTP patents were valid, that RIM had infringed them, that the infringement had been "willful," and that the infringement had cost NTP $33 million in damages (the greater of a reasonable royalty or lost profits). The judge,
James R. SpencerJames Randolph Spencer was born in Florence, South Carolina in 1949. He attended Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in 1971. He later attended Harvard Law School, where he received his Juris Doctor in 1974....
, increased the damages to $53 million as a punitive measure because the infringement had been willful. He also instructed RIM to pay NTP's legal fees of $4.5 million and issued an injunction ordering RIM to cease and desist infringing the patents. This would have shut down the BlackBerry systems in the US. RIM appealed all of the findings of the court. The injunction and other remedies were stayed pending the outcome of the appeals.
In March 2005 during the appeals process, RIM and NTP tried to negotiate a settlement of their dispute; the settlement was to be for $450 million. Negotiations broke down due to other issues. On June 10, 2005, the matter returned to the courts. In early November 2005 the US Department of Justice filed a
briefA brief is a written legal document used in various legal adversarial systems that is presented to a court arguing why the party to the case should prevail....
requesting that RIM's service be allowed to continue because of the large number of BlackBerry users in the US Federal Government.
In January 2006 the US Supreme Court refused to hear RIM's appeal of the holding of liability for patent infringement, and the matter was returned to a lower court. The prior granted
injunctionAn injunction is an equitable remedy in the form of a court order that requires a party to do or refrain from doing certain acts. A party that fails to comply with an injunction faces criminal or civil penalties and may have to pay damages or accept sanctions...
preventing all RIM sales in the US and use of the BlackBerry device might have been enforced by the presiding district court judge had the two parties been unable to reach a settlement.
On February 9, 2006, the US Department of Defense (DOD) filed a brief stating that an injunction shutting down the BlackBerry service while excluding government users was unworkable. The DOD also stated that the BlackBerry was crucial for national security given the large number of government users.
On February 9, 2006, RIM announced that it had developed software workarounds that would not infringe the NTP patents, and would implement those if the injunction was enforced.
On March 3, 2006, after a stern warning from Judge Spencer, RIM and NTP announced that they had settled their dispute. Under the terms of the settlement, RIM has agreed to pay NTP $612.5 million (USD) in a “full and final settlement of all claims.” In a statement, RIM said that “all terms of the agreement have been finalized and the litigation against RIM has been dismissed by a court order this afternoon. The agreement eliminates the need for any further court proceedings or decisions relating to damages or injunctive relief.” The settlement amount is believed low by some analysts, because of the absence of any future royalties on the technology in question.
Certification
- BCESA (BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Sales Associate, BCESA40 in full) is a BlackBerry Certification for professional users of RIM (Research In Motion
Research In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
) BlackBerry wireless email devices.
The Certification requires the user to pass several exams relating to the BlackBerry Device, all its functions including Desktop software and providing technical support to Customers of BlackBerry Devices.
The BCESA, BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Sales Associate qualification, is the first of three levels of professional BlackBerry Certification.
- BCTA (BlackBerry Certified Technical Associate)
- BlackBerry Certified Support Associate T2
More information on certifications is on the Blackberry.com website.
The BlackBerry Technical Certifications available are:
- BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Server Consultant (BCESC)
- BlackBerry Certified Server Support Technician (BCSST)
- BlackBerry Certified Support Technician (BCST)
Use
The encryption features make it extremely safe and Blackberry devices suitable for use by state forces
The use by government forces
An example is the British police, which has allowed the increase in the presence of police officers along the streets and a reduction in public spending, given that each agent could perform the work desk directly via the mobile device, as well as in several other areas and situations.
President Barack Obama's use
The President of the United States,
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...
, became known for his dependence on a BlackBerry device for communication during his 2008 presidential campaign. Despite the security issues, he insisted on using it even after inauguration, becoming the first President of the United States to use mobile email. This was seen by some as akin to a "celebrity endorsement," which marketing experts have estimated to be worth between $25 and $50 million.
Competition
The primary competitors of the BlackBerry are smartphones running Android, iOS, webOS, and
Windows Phone 7Windows Phone is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft, and is the successor to its Windows Mobile platform, although incompatible with it. Unlike its predecessor, it is primarily aimed at the consumer market rather than the enterprise market...
. Blackberry users have defended its utility over the iPhone, supporting its physical keyboard, secure email, and applications such as
BlackBerry MessengerBlackBerry Messenger is a proprietary Internet-based instant messenger application included on BlackBerry devices which allows messaging between BlackBerry users.It was developed by Research In Motion , maker of the BlackBerry device...
. RIM reported in June 2010 that they had sold up to 100 million BlackBerry phones, including record sales in their first trimester.
Government regulation
Some countries have expressed reservations about BlackBerry's strong encryption and the fact that data is routed through
Research In MotionResearch In Motion Limited or RIM is a Canadian multinational telecommunications company headquartered in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada that designs, manufactures and markets wireless solutions for the worldwide mobile communications market...
's servers, which are outside the legal jurisdictions of those countries. The United Arab Emirates considering the BlackBerry as a "security threat" for this reason, with the former having earlier been reported as trying to get users to install an "update" on their BlackBerry devices, ostensibly for performance enhancement, but which turned out to be
spywareSpyware is a type of malware that can be installed on computers, and which collects small pieces of information about users without their knowledge. The presence of spyware is typically hidden from the user, and can be difficult to detect. Typically, spyware is secretly installed on the user's...
that allowed phone call and email monitoring. The update and subsequent performance deteriorating spyware were reportedly generated by UAE company Etisalat, about which it commented minimally. When questioned in a BBC
Click interview about how Research in Motion has responded to the demands of India and other governments in the Middle East, RIM co-CEO
Mike LazaridisMihalis "Mike" Lazaridis , OC, O.Ont is a Greek Canadian businessman. He is the founder and co-CEO of Research In Motion , which created and manufactures the BlackBerry wireless handheld device. He is also a former chancellor of the University of Waterloo, and an Officer of the Order of Canada...
objected to the questioning and said the interview was over.
Other countries threatening to ban the use of the BlackBerry Messenger include
AlgeriaAlgeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
,
IndonesiaIndonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
,
IndiaIndia , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
,
PakistanPakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
and
Saudi ArabiaThe Kingdom of Saudi Arabia , commonly known in British English as Saudi Arabia and in Arabic as as-Sa‘ūdiyyah , is the largest state in Western Asia by land area, constituting the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and the second-largest in the Arab World...
.
Barbados
In 2010 the government officials of
BarbadosBarbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles. It is in length and as much as in width, amounting to . It is situated in the western area of the North Atlantic and 100 kilometres east of the Windward Islands and the Caribbean Sea; therein, it is about east of the islands of Saint...
announced a sharp increase in crime due to thefts of cell phones, with BlackBerrys being the usual target. The Commissioner of police in the country announced steps were being taken to make stolen BlackBerry devices less attractive in the country.
India
Indian authorities have asked RIM to provide means to access the encrypted data for calls to, from, or within India, following concerns that it could be used by terrorist and rebel groups to carry out attacks on India. In the November 2008 Mumbai attacks, terrorists used mobile and satellite phone technologies after which security agencies and the Indian government have become more strict and alert towards communication within the country. BlackBerry has indicated willingness to set up a server in India by October, 2010 and giving the country limited access to its encryption technology. However, this will only apply to personal devices which route via RIM's infrastructure: organisations providing their own BlackBerry Enterprise Server will continue to have encrypted message flow, to which even RIM themselves will not have access. On January 31, 2011 India refused a limited access offer and demanded full access.
RIM has a facility in Mumbai to help the government carry out lawful surveillance of its BlackBerry services. RIM gave India access to its consumer services, including its Messenger services, in January 2011, but said it could not allow monitoring of its enterprise email. The Mumbai facility handles surveillance and requests lawful intercept requests, from India, for consumer services including the BlackBerry Messenger chat service. India can submit the name of a suspect its investigators want to wiretap, and RIM will return decoded messages for that individual, as long as it is satisfied the request has legal authorization.
India prefers an arrangement where it has the ability to decode messages itself, so that it can conduct surveillance without disclosing the names of suspects to RIM. India still has no method to intercept and decode BlackBerry enterprise email, which is used by corporate customers and features a higher level of encryption than consumer email and instant messaging.
Indonesia
On January 10, 2011 RIM agreed to install web filters in the Indonesian market, following the request by Indonesia's Ministry of Communication and Information Technology to filter pornographic websites. On January 17, 2011 RIM met Indonesia's Communications and Information Technology minister and signed a commitment to abide the law. The deadline was January 21, 2011. Shortly before the deadline, Blackberry filtered all adult content in Indonesia. Furthermore, RIM is in discussions with the Indonesian Ministry of Information to build a local server network of aggregrators to cut communications costs, to hire more local workers, and plans to establish 40 service centers in Indonesia.
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has since reportedly continued its service of BlackBerry Messenger. Saudi Arabia has also threatened to ban the service, but it was reported close to reaching an agreement with RIM to set up a server for the service inside the Kingdom.
United Arab Emirates
On August 1, 2010 Telecommunication Regulatory Authority (TRA) of The United Arab Emirates officially announced the suspension of
BlackBerry MessengerBlackBerry Messenger is a proprietary Internet-based instant messenger application included on BlackBerry devices which allows messaging between BlackBerry users.It was developed by Research In Motion , maker of the BlackBerry device...
, BlackBerry Email, and BlackBerry Web browsing services in the country as of October 11, 2010. This measure was taken due to failed attempts in having the service hosted locally as per the UAE Telecommunication regulations.
On October 8, 2010 the TRA officially announced that the BlackBerry services such as BBM, email, and web browsing will continue to work as before.
Nicknames
BlackBerry is widely referred to as "CrackBerry" in Canada and the United States, which alludes to its excessive use by its owners and is a reference to the addictiveness of
crack cocaineCrack cocaine is the freebase form of cocaine that can be smoked. It may also be termed rock, hard, iron, cavvy, base, or just crack; it is the most addictive form of cocaine. Crack rocks offer a short but intense high to smokers...
. Use of the term CrackBerry became so widespread that in November 2006 Webster's New World College Dictionary named "crackberry" the "New Word of the Year."
Criticism
In October, 2011, BlackBerry users could not connect to the BlackBerry servers due to a major failure. The services were interrupted for almost 3 days in many parts of the world. BlackBerry had announced that it would give all its users free apps worth $100 in an attempt to express apology for its service disruption.
RIM is also criticized by many governments including Indian Government for making it hard to spy on their users. The messages sent from BlackBerry are encrypted and hence difficult to track. However, the Department of Telecommunication in India have successfully decrypted messages sent over BlackBerry and therefore messages sent over BlackBerry phones can now be tracked.
See also
- Comparison of smartphones
-Hardware and OS:-Networks and connectivity:...
- Index of BlackBerry OS-related articles
-A:*Accelerometer*Advanced_Wireless_Services#BlackBerry*ALX *Amazon MP3*Appcelerator*Application development*Application programming interface*Application software*Architel*ARM architecture-B:*Barcode*Bedrock*Biblical software...
- Science and technology in Canada
Science and technology in Canada consists of three distinct but closely related phenomena:* the diffusion of technology in Canada,* scientific research in Canada* innovation, invention and industrial research in Canada...
- T9 (predictive text)
T9, which stands for Text on 9 keys, is a patented predictive text technology for mobile phones, originally developed by Tegic Communications, now part of Nuance Communications....
- PocketMac
PocketMac Software is a small software developer and publisher that produces software primarily for Macintosh-based systems. The company, founded in 2000, is run by two brothers, Terence Goggin and Tim Goggin. It is headquartered in San Diego, CA-History:...
External links