BlackBerry

BlackBerry

The term BlackBerry refers to a line of wireless handheld devices and services designed and marketed by BlackBerry Limited, formerly known as Research In Motion Limited (RIM). The most recent BlackBerry devices are the Z3, Z30, Z10 and the newly released Passport. The Z3, Z30 and Z10 were announced on February 2014, September 2013 and January 2013

respectively. The user interface varies by model; most had featured a physical QWERTY keyboard, while newer generations have relied on a multi-touch screen and virtual keyboard.

BlackBerry gained marketshare in the mobile industry by concentrating on email. The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display while newer models installed color displays. All newer models have been optimized for "thumbing", the use of only the thumbs to type on a keyboard. On January 30, 2013, BlackBerry announced the release of the Z10 and Q10 smartphones. Both models consist of touch screens: the Z10 features an all-touch design and the Q10 combines a QWERTY keyboard with touchscreen features. During the second financial quarter of 2013, BlackBerry sold 6.8 million handsets but was lapsed by the sales of competitor Nokia's Lumia model for the first time. On August 12, 2013, BlackBerry announced the intention to sell the company due to their increasingly unfavourable financial position and competition in the mobile industry.

In early July 2014, the TechCrunch online publication published an article titled "BlackBerry Is One Of The Hottest Stocks Of 2014, Seriously", following a 50 percent rise in the company's stock—an increase that was greater than peer companies such as Apple and Google; however, an analysis of BlackBerry's financial results showed that neither revenue or profit margin were improved, but, instead, costs were markedly reduced. During the same period, BlackBerry also introduced the new "Passport" handset—consisting of a 4.5 inches (11 cm) square screen with "Full HD-class" (1,440 x 1,440) resolution and marketed to professional fields such as healthcare and architecture—promoted its Messenger app and released minor updates for the BB10 mobile operating system.

It was one of the major smartphone vendors until 2012. The consumer BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries worldwide on over 500 mobile service operators using various mobile technologies. As of September 2013, there were eighty-five million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide.