The following is a partial list of BlackBerry products.
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
is a line of
wireless
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
handheld devices
A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...
first introduced in 1996
and manufactured by the Canadian company
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
, formerly known as Research In Motion (RIM).
Early pager models
These two-way
pager
A pager (also known as a beeper or bleeper) is a wireless telecommunications device that receives and displays alphanumeric or voice messages. One-way pagers can only receive messages, while response pagers and two-way pagers can also acknow ...
models had
thumb keyboard
A thumb keyboard, or a thumb board, is a type of keyboard commonly found on PDAs, mobile phones, and PDA phones which has a familiar layout to an ordinary keyboard, such as QWERTY. The inputting surface is usually relatively small, and is inten ...
s, with a thumbwheel for scrolling its monochrome text display.
The first model, the
Inter@ctive Pager, was announced on September 18, 1996.
Within a year,
Yankee Group
Yankee Group was an independent technology research and consulting firm, founded in 1970 by Howard Anderson. The firm "was one of the analyst industry’s most prestigious boutiques through the dot.com boom, with 70 analysts on the payroll in 2006 ...
was estimating that devices like the Inter@ctive Pager were in use by fewer than 400,000 people and expected two-way wireless messaging services to attract 51 million users by 2002.
They provided e-mail and
WAP
WAP or Wap may refer to:
Music
* "WAP" (song), a 2020 song by Cardi B featuring Megan Thee Stallion
Organizations
* Weatherization Assistance Program, for US energy costs
* Western Australia Party, a political party founded in 2016
* Western A ...
services, with limited HTML access provided via third party software such as
WolfeTech PocketGenie or GoAmerica browser.
They were built for use with two
1G data-only
packet switched network
In telecommunications, packet switching is a method of grouping data into '' packets'' that are transmitted over a digital network. Packets are made of a header and a payload. Data in the header is used by networking hardware to direct the pack ...
s:
Mobitex
Mobitex is an OSI based open standard, national public access wireless packet-switched data network. Mobitex puts great emphasis on safety and reliability with its use by military, police, firefighters and ambulance services. It was developed in t ...
and
DataTAC. They did not support
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
without the use of a
Java Virtual Machine add-on.
Monochrome Java-based models (5000 and 6000 series)
Most of these models were the first BlackBerry models that had a built-in
mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whi ...
, were the first models that natively ran
Java
Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's mos ...
, and transmitted data over the normal
2G cellular network. RIM began to advertise these devices as email-capable mobile phones rather than as two-way pagers. At this time, the primary market was still businesses rather than consumers.
The 5810 was released on March 4, 2002. An aberration in this list, the 5790, was released at a much later date as a
niche
Niche may refer to:
Science
*Developmental niche, a concept for understanding the cultural context of child development
*Ecological niche, a term describing the relational position of an organism's species
*Niche differentiation, in ecology, the ...
model in 2004 after many color BlackBerry models were out. This non-phone BlackBerry was made available due to the demand for a Java-based model that could run on the Mobitex data-only network. The 5810/5820 shared the same physical casing and keyboard layout as the earlier 957 device.
The 6000 series was launched in 2003 with 6210 entering the influential ''Time All Time 100 Gadgets'' list.
First color models (7000 series)
In 2003, the monochrome models were revised to include a color screen, while retaining the same form factor and casing. Early color models, such as the 7230, typically used a dim
electroluminescent
Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical and electrical phenomenon, in which a material emits light in response to the passage of an electric current or to a strong electric field. This is distinct from black body light emission resulting from ...
backlight
A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). As LCDs do not produce light by themselves—unlike, for example, cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma (PDP) or OLED displays—they need illumination ( ambient light or a ...
, leading to an initial reputation of poor image quality. Later color models, such as the 7290, typically used a
LED backlight, yielding much better screen quality. The
color LCD
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display or other electronically modulated optical device that uses the light-modulating properties of liquid crystals combined with polarizers. Liquid crystals do not emit light directly but i ...
screens used in these series were either reflective or
transflective
A transflective liquid-crystal display is a liquid-crystal display (LCD) with an optical layer that reflects and transmits light (''transflective'' is a portmanteau of ''transmissive'' and ''reflective''). Under bright illumination (e.g. when expos ...
, so these screens yielded better image quality in direct sunlight even with the backlight turned off.
Nearly all models in this list were 16 MB models with no
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
. The only model with 32 MB and Bluetooth is the 7290, which was the last model released in the early BlackBerry form factor, and was the first BlackBerry model with
Bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
. The 7290 was also the first
quad-band
In telecommunications, a multi-band device (including (2) dual-band, (3) tri-band, (4) quad-band and (5) penta-band devices) is a communication device (especially a mobile phone) that supports multiple radio frequency bands. All devices which ha ...
BlackBerry.
An aberration in this list is the 7270, the first
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wav ...
BlackBerry, released later. It is built into the old form factor in the same vein as the 7200 series.
First SureType models (7100 series)
RIM expanded the market by introducing the first BlackBerry models without a discrete
QWERTY
QWERTY () is a keyboard layout for Latin-script alphabets. The name comes from the order of the first six keys on the top left letter row of the keyboard ( ). The QWERTY design is based on a layout created for the Sholes and Glidden t ...
keyboard, in the
candybar
A candy bar is a type of candy that is in the shape of a bar. The most common type of candy bar is the chocolate bar, including both bars made of solid chocolate and combination candy bars, which are candy bars that combine chocolate with other ...
form factor. They developed a
predictive text
Predictive text is an input technology used where one key or button represents many letters, such as on the numeric keypads of mobile phones and in accessibility technologies. Each key press results in a ''prediction'' rather than repeatedly ...
technology called
SureType with a QWERTY-like layout, using two keys per button. By using only two letters per button, rather than three letters per button as in
T9 using ten-digit keypads, predictive text accuracy could be improved dramatically. The use of a QWERTY-like layout took advantage of people's memory of the computer keyboard, since each button was roughly relative to each key. At the same time, the size of the BlackBerry could be dramatically reduced, as keyboards only needed to be 5-buttons wide rather than 10-buttons wide. These BlackBerries became more popular with the mass market as they became similarly sized to competing consumer-market cellphones.
These models were among the first BlackBerry models to be aggressively marketed to consumers, rather than to businesses. RIM continued to manufacture QWERTY models, to give the market a choice between the traditional QWERTY thumb keyboard, and the compressed SureType keyboard.
Consumer models (8000 and 9000 series)
Beginning with the 8700-series models in 2006, RIM began to aggressively add consumer features to BlackBerry models, in an aim to capture more of the consumer market from competitors such as
Treo and
Motorola Q
The Motorola Q is a Windows Mobile smartphone first announced in the Summer of 2005 as a thin device with similar styling to Motorola's immensely popular RAZR. Motorola in a partnership with Verizon Wireless released the Q on May 31, 2006. A versi ...
. In this progression of models, the additions include better quality screens, more memory, built-in chat software, first cameraphone,
microSD memory card slot, built-in mapping software, and other consumer-specific features. The BlackBerry Pearl 8100 was the first BlackBerry without a
trackwheel, which was replaced by a miniature
trackball
A trackball is a pointing device consisting of a ball held by a socket containing sensors to detect a rotation of the ball about two axes—like an upside-down ball mouse with an exposed protruding ball. Users roll the ball to position the o ...
to enable full 4-way and mouse-style navigation on a BlackBerry. The look of the new trackball gave the "Pearl" its name.
The 9000 series was launched in 2008.
BlackBerry 10
Android
Tablets
See also
*
References
External links
Current BlackBerry SmartphonesAll BlackBerry devices GSMArena.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:List Of Blackberry Products
BlackBerry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
BlackBerry products
BlackBerry Limited
BlackBerry
Lists of mobile computers