| INTRODUCTION → 1. The Planet Goes BlackBerry → 2. The Birth of the BlackBerry → 3. Lawsuits in Motion → → 4. From Brand to Icon → 5. BlackBerry Jam → 6. The Rise of the TeleBrain → |
| WELCOME / INDEX - SAMPLE CHAPTER → DEVICES → Image Gallery → Audio/Video → Texts & Docs → Web Links → Appendix → |
1998
From BlackBerry Planet Web Support
| Appendix - Glossary → Timeline → Financials → Growth → Patents | Cases → Bibliography → Partners Fund → Techno Telepathy |
| •2000s → 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 |
| •1990s → 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 1993 - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 |
| •1980s → 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 |
RIM is ranked as one of Canada's fastest-growing technology companies. The concentration of those companies in the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont., region leads some to refer to the area as Silicon Valley North.
Product Announcements
- RIM introduces the RIM 950 Wireless Handheld™, a wireless handheld computer later named the BlackBerry. It offers a six-line display and allows basic e-mail and two-way paging. Users can also browse specially formatted pages that offer news, weather, stock market data and travel information.
- RIM licenses the Intellisync™ Synchronization Platform from Puma Technology to enhance its wireless handhelds
Partnerships & Alliances
- RIM forms strategic alliances with BellSouth Wireless Data and Sybase
- RIM signs wireless handheld supply contracts with American Mobile (now Motient), IBM, Rogers Cantel (now Rogers AT&T) and BellSouth Wireless Data (now Cingular)
- RIM signs wireless radio modem supply contracts with Telxon, Panasonic, GMSI Fleet Management Systems, Itronix Ruggedized Notebooks and DataWave and Gooitech
Awards
- RIM receives the Editor's Choice Award by CNET, Andrew Seybold's Outlook Award, ranks fourth on the Fastest-Growing Top 100 in Technology published by Canadian Business and ranks among Canada's fastest growing high-tech companies in the Financial Post Technology Fast 55.
- 1998 - RIM wins the 1998 Academy Award for technical achievement for the DigiSync Film Barcode Reader. Mike Lazaridis attends a pre-Oscar ceremony in 1999, and accepts RIM's Academy Award in person from actress Anne Heche.
