BlackBerry Planet: The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device
that Took the World by Storm
BlackBerry Planet is a new tribe of people who simply cannot get along
without their favorite device, Research in Motion’s innovative electronic organizer, the
BlackBerry. This omnipresent device has gone beyond being the world’s foremost mobile
business tool and entered the consumer mainstream as the Swiss Army Knife of smart phones.
BlackBerry Planet tells the behind-the-scenes story of how this little device
has become the machine that connects the planet. Starting with the early years of Mike
Lazaridis’ invention and his founding of RIM at age 23, it details his drive to
innovate, developing what was a glorified pager into the essential corporate communicator,
used by everyone from dealmakers to the Queen, from movie stars to the entire US Congress.
Since 1992, Lazaridis and co-CEO Jim Balsillie together have been the driving force behind
the RIM story.
With access to senior staffers and former RIM employees, BlackBerry Planet
tells the inside story about the branding and marketing success of the BlackBerry, from
its use during 9/11, which earned RIM a reputation for security and reliability, to the
cultural adoption of the iconic device as a must-have symbol, to the backlash against the
addictive properties of the “CrackBerry,” and the various patent suits RIM has had to
fight off – including the five-year court battle that resulted in the largest technology
patent settlement in US history.
As the incredible story of the BlackBerry unfolds, and as RIM battles
global giants like Nokia and Apple in the emerging super-phone marketplace, users, fans,
investors and competitors can look to BlackBerry Planet for the insight and context of
where they’ve been, to try and predict where they’re going.
Alastair Sweeny is a veteran writer specializing in business histories
and leading-edge technologies. He has produced and written five corporate histories of
leading companies in the energy, financial services, technology and retail sectors.
Alastair has also produced book and digital content for Apple Inc. and Microsoft Inc.
Table of Contents
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
A Web Support Service for Readers.
Chapter 1: The Planet Goes BlackBerry.
Chapter 2: The Birth of the BlackBerry.
Chapter 3: Lawsuits in Motion.
Chapter 4: From Brand to Icon: Seven Years in Motion.
Chapter 5: BlackBerry Jam.
Chapter 6: The Rise of the TeleBrain.
Afterword: Rim on the Plateau?
Index.
304 pages, Hardcover