BlackBerry, is a brand of smartphones, tablets, and services originally designed and marketed by Canadian company BlackBerry Limited were among the first popular smartphones.

The BlackBerry’s roots go back to the RIM 850, a pager created by RIM in 1999. Featuring a tiny keyboard, the device provided wireless e-mail access, allowing users to send and receive messages while on the go. Soon after, RIM released a faster, more powerful device, the RIM 857. The 857 looked more like a personal digital assistant and could sync up with personal and business e-mail accounts. The first BlackBerry phones were released in 2002. Offering cellular phone service, wireless e-mail capability, and Internet access, the new “smartphones” took the business world by storm.

In 2008 the BlackBerry Storm, a touchscreen smartphone similar to Apple Inc.’s iPhone, which debuted the previous year, was released to poor reviews. BlackBerry user growth continued until 2013, but BlackBerry had lost market share to the iPhone and Android-based devices like the Samsung Galaxy. In 2016 the company announced that it would no longer make smartphones and would instead concentrate on software and cyber security services, and in 2022 BlackBerry ended support for its smartphones.