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`The Evo lut ion of the B lackBerry, From 957 to Z10
`With BlackBerry 10 on the horizon, we take a look back at the long history of RIM's hot handhelds.
`January 28, 2013
`By Sascha Segan
`The highly anticipated BlackBerry Z10 is the latest step on a long road for one of the world's rst
`smartphone makers. It's a chance for rebirth. If Research in Motion, Waterloo's nest, can pull this
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`comeback o, it'll manage to do something none of its peers has done: Carve out smartphone
`success for more than ten years running.
`The major U.S. handheld players ten years ago included Palm, Dell, HP, Nokia, Danger, and RIM.
`Samsung and HTC were just starting to dabble. What do those rst six companies have in common?
`Four aren't making handhelds any more, and two—RIM and Nokia—are working hard to reinvent
`themselves.
`When we ran our review of the RIM 957, we classied it as a pager. RIM had already been selling
`two-way pagers for six years at that point, but it's safe to call the 957 (and its sibling the 950) the
`rst true BlackBerrys: they introduced the QWERTY keyboard and many of the icons and UI
`elements that would endure for the next decade.
`The BlackBerry wasn't a smartphone yet, though. That came in 2002 with the BlackBerry 5810,
`which didn't even have an integrated microphone. You had to wear a headset. It took another year,
`and the BlackBerry 7230, to deliver a true smartphone. That was almost exactly ten years ago.
`RIM rode high for the next six years. From 2005 to 2009, the BlackBerry brand dominated the
`smartphone market in the U.S., with models on every carrier. The OS advanced gracefully, adding
`media features but staying focused on messaging. Nothing could match BlackBerry's reliability for
`business customers. We called them "crackberries."
`But then the company got hit by the one-two punch of touch screens and app stores. Just like Nokia,
`RIM was stuck with an OS that hadn't been designed for touch, and it stumbled when trying to graft
`that functionality on, resulting in the embarrassing BlackBerry Storm.
`Touch worked much beer on the Torch a year later, but the menu-heavy OS still had a lot of long
`lists and small touch targets. RIM also came late to the game of encouraging third-party apps,
`leing Google and Apple build a strong lead, especially on games. That's a painful irony, as
`BlackBerrys could install apps long before Apple and Google even made their rst phones.
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`RIM has its faithful, and RIM still has a chance. BlackBerry 10 looks like the OS the company has
`needed for two years now: sleek and touch-centric, but still focused on messaging. Based on QNX,
`the new OS is prepared for this decade's hardware. We'll have full coverage of the BlackBerry 10
`launch on Wednesday, but for now, let's see how we got there.
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`1. RIM 957 Wireless Handheld (2000)
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`The rst true BlackBerry wasn't even called a BlackBerry, and it was a big-screen handheld
`without phone capabilities. For many people, it was a revelation: For the rst time they could
`get their email on the go, assured that it would arrive on the handheld the instant it would
`have shown up on a desktop. The
`RIM 957 couldn't handle e-mail aachments and didn't
`have a Web browser by default, but back then, this was enough.
`2. BlackBerry 5810 (2002)
`The rst BlackBerry phone was, in the words of our reviewer Bruce Brown, a "not-so-
`convenient combo." RIM hadn't reengineered the 5810 to include a microphone and speaker,
`so if you wanted to make a phone call, you had to wear a headset. The
`5810 also supported
`SMS, which Brown had to explain to PCMag's readers: "Two-way SMS is a near-
`instantaneous method of communicating between wireless devices. It's more popular in
`Europe, but gaining currency in the U.S. as eective corporate communication."
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`3. BlackBerry 7230 (2003)
`Now we're really talking. The
`BlackBerry 7230 had a color display, an integrated microphone
`and speaker, and a full Web browser, ushering RIM into the true smartphone era. The 7230
`and its variants and slight upgrades on dierent carriers became ubiquitous in American
`business by 2005; the CrackBerry Era was afoot.
`4. BlackBerry 7100t (2004)
`BlackBerrys were great for typing, but they were rather wide. That left the company with a
`challenge: how could it build a narrower device that still had the keyboard BlackBerry fans
`expected? The
`7100t introduced the SureType keyboard, which put two leers on each key
`and used predictive text software to gure out what you were trying to say. SureType hit a
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`sweet spot, and the 7100 series was the rst line of BlackBerrys to really break through with
`consumers.
`5. BlackBerry Pearl 8100 (2006)
`By 2006, consumers were starting to demand fun with their smartphones, and RIM
`delivered with the spectacularly popular Pearl line. The
`Pearl took the 7100t's SureType
`keyboard, swapped out the thumb wheel for a track ball, made everything smaller and
`brighter, and added a camera, music, and video players. No longer a serious phone for
`serious people, the Pearl was genuinely fun.
`6. BlackBerry Curve 8300 (2007)
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`The Curve is my pick for the best hardware smartphone keyboard ever. In all of history. The
`combination of key size, shape, and separation made for a QWERTY keyboard that was
`absolutely joyous to type on, whether it be with one or two hands. Many people agreed, and
`the colorful Curve went on to become one of the most popular smartphone lines in history.
`7. Bold 9000 (2008)
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`For C-level executives circa 2008, carrying the BlackBerry Bold meant that you had arrived.
`Everything about this device was designed to feel luxurious, down to the leatheree back.
`The Bold 9000 was probably the pinnacle of the traditional BlackBerry: You now had a high-
`res screen, fast processor, and strong media players. But it also showed the weaknesses
`that would later hamstring RIM: a weak Web browser and a thin app selection.
`8. BlackBerry Storm 9530 (2008)
`RIM's fall began, slowly, on Black Friday 2008, when Verizon released the buggy, unnished
`BlackBerry Storm. RIM knew touch screens were becoming a major trend, and it wanted to
`nd a technology that combined the congurability of a touch screen with the tactile
`response of a hardware keyboard. But the Storm was an epic mess, unstable, and with a
`less-than-obvious interface that didn't make it clear what would happen when you clicked.
`RIM sorted out most of the bugs after six months, but the damage was already done.
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`9. BlackBerry Torch 9800 (2010)
`RIM's second major stab at a touch screen device fared much beer. The Torch, with
`BlackBerry OS 6, got touch screens right: it was a big screen phone with a portrait-style
`QWERTY keyboard that slid down from behind the screen. The hardware was denitely
`there, but consumers' desires had turned to third-party apps, and BlackBerry App World
`was geing o to a slow start.
`10. BlackBerry Style 9670 (2010)
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`RIM had been toying with ip-phone designs for a while, like with 2008's BlackBerry Pearl
`Flip. The Pearl Flip was cute, but o trend; it tried to pick up on the 2007-era popularity of ip
`phones in mid-2009, when everyone was interested in touch screen slabs. The Style brought
`a full QWERTY keyboard to the ip form factor, which we liked, but by 2010 there was much
`more of a focus on app stores, where RIM was really falling behind.
`11. BlackBerry Bold 9930 (2011)
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`This Bold was as powerful as the BlackBerry 7 OS could get. The Bold 9930 continued in the
`CEO-quality tradition of the 9900, adding a much faster processor and "liquid graphics"
`while maintaining the luxurious build and excellent baery life. But the software platform
`here was clearly coming to an end. "If you've been eyeing Androids or iPhones lately, or are
`already carrying one, the Bold 9930 is just more of the same-old, same-old," our reviewer
`Jamie Lendino wrote.
`12. BlackBerry Z10 (2013)
`The BlackBerry Z10 is a fresh start for RIM, with a brand-new OS based on QNX and a brand-
`new Web browser as well. The new BlackBerry 10 OS is designed for media and
`multitasking, with innovative UI features like being able to peek at your messages from any
`other app. Will it succeed? Here's hoping. It's RIM's best chance in years.
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`About Sascha Segan
`Lead Analyst, Mobile
`I'm that 5G guy. I've actually been here for every "G." I've reviewed well over a thousand products
`during 18 years working full-time at PCMag.com, including every generation of the iPhone and the
`Samsung Galaxy S. I also write a weekly newsleer, Fully Mobilized, where I obsess about phones
`and networks.
`Read Sascha's full bio
`Read the latest from Sascha Segan
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`More from Sascha Segan
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