What killed the Blackberry

[@MattInglot]

I was a co-op student there in 2006 the summer before the iphone came out. I still remember the day I had a conversation with a higher up. I was telling him how excited I'll be for the day that portable cameras, mp3 players, and GPS will be obsolete because the BlackBerry will do them all instead. I was told in clear terms that this was impossible. Mobile cameras would never be good enough. GPS used too much battery. Music would always work better on an iPod type device. I think about that conversation a lot.

[@VITAS874]

Things was simple back then.

[@jonfreeman9682]

You were ahead of your time. Right idea but the tech wasn't there yet at that time. But they squandered there lead. In the end they'll still fail.

[@xl000]

so you talked with someone who thought that technologies had stopped evolving and we had reached the final level already ? Even in 2006, it was clear that it was going in the direction that it eventually followed. I remember the first time I handled my Nokia N70, and with hindsight it laid the foundations of the smartphones. I replaced it with an E71 - another Symbian, and it was with the first Android device that they started really going smoothly on the internet

[@MattInglot]

@@xl000 It was odd and really changed my mind about the company. I kinda get the camera thing because smartphone cameras were comically bad, and there were assumptions that laws of physics might limit their quality. The mp3 thing was bewildering though because yea of course battery life and storage will keep increasing. Really sad though. BlackBerrys were very special phones.

[@jamesthomas4080]

Matthias, you give a textbook example of why the innovator's dilemma is a thing. Thank you for that great history lesson from an insider's perspective.

[@jgurtz]

This has got to be one of the most thoughtful and well put together lessons on the tech industry. I greatly enjoyed watching, as I did using my last blackberry 81xx-something with all the keys and the lovely thumb trackball. BES, the RIM support team, and the documentation were always top notch! It was a pleasure to support.

[@anthonydiiorio]

Matthias your main channel was taken over by some crypto scam!

[@Aratimb]

Matthias, I noticed some weird crypto channel video on my sub feed that i've never subscribed to, and went to check the channel and all videos out and the videos there are yours, which means your main channel has been hacked.

[@joghurtkuchen]

Your main channel seems to have been hacked!!!

[@billkimmel5427]

Thanks for making this video. I was an early adopter of RIM/Blackberry and a professional fan of technology development. Your story proves the point that technology solutions exist in a dynamic environment where (in my NASA days) we describe a "feed forward" loop. quite different than a feedback loop. Well done in sharing this story. I remain a fan of all your videos. Truly the best of the KZbin Mathias. Be well.

[@casikamodern3596]

Thank you for the history lesson. I am old enough to have gone through that period but had resisted on getting work emails on personal time so by the time I relented and was deciding on which device to buy, the IPhone 4 had won out. I had no experience with the physical keyboard so it was the sexier larger screen and web browsing ability that had won me over.

[@gwesco]

Reminds me of the telecom industry at the time. In 1975 I worked for a large hospital that had a step by step telecom switch from the local telco. It used a manual cord board and had rotary dialing. We bought an ITT digital phone system which supported DTMF and had many more features. It was programmable to a certain extent. Then in 1984 we bought a Northern Electric SL-1 system that was fully programmable and even had digital phone sets. When I left in 2006, it had been upgraded to an Option 81C and we were upgrading to VoIP. I ended up teaching VoIP at the local community college for 12 years.

[@TheWangbolizhong]

It's really cool to hear your Blackberry story.👍

[@mnoxman]

Point of order. (RIP Motorola) Moto was taken over by a "activist investor" by the early 2000s and had spun off the semiconductor, Two-way radio and computer/programming divisions along with all the patents to the highest bidder. This left the Mobile phone division, though funded, with out engineering resources and that was eventually sold to Google who took some patents some technology and sold that to Lenovo. I would argue that Moto Mobile phone division was agile in the 90s but had a shadow of their engineering fortitude by 2006. By 2007 "Motorola" was a brand that had gravitas but internally they were just a couple of trade marks and some patents others didn't want. In practicality Motorola was lobotomized by it's investors for RIM, Apple and Google. Though Google picked it's pockets before senting to a 'happy-dale" in upstate China.

[@aserta]

Motorola and Nokia were both inside jobs. Corporate raiding (or similar) should be a punishable offense of the highest order. I'd put those SOBs in the same jail cells with common criminals. We're talking here about the tech stuff, but in reality, this is about thousands or more employees that got shafted so other corporations could play the game. Not cool in my book.

[@strobie42]

I was at Symbian, which failed around the same time, but for different reasons. Like you, I sometimes think about what could have been done differently, but even with hindsight I think it was inevitable. Once a small organisation grows with a success, it's always going to seem foolhardy to divert significant attention and resources away from that, and it's probably the correct business decision not to; you can't know that your research project will succeed, it's a massive gamble. If you're the size of Apple, Google, Microsoft or Samsung you can afford to either acquire a promising company that's already done some/most of the research, or to fund multiple new research projects so that one of them has a chance of success (but see the counterexample of Windows Mobile!)

[@ckm-mkc]

I worked as a C-level strategy advisor at both Palm & Motorola just before the iPhone launched. Palm was actually way ahead of everyone but IP issues massively delayed the release and killed them. Gotta remember at the time that Apple was going nowhere before the iPhone - the iPod had been successful but it was just keeping the company relevant and there was no app store or ecosystem to speak of - that came, much much later, but Palm had all of the above, plus successful devices in the market. Motorola was doomed all around, they were not interested in innovating or new tech, just replicating the StarTac success... Interesting stuff.

[@chaos.corner]

As I recall, Palm started chasing other things instead of evolving their core success. Wasn't WebOS theirs? Then there was the folio debacle.

[@Laundry_Hamper]

WebOS arrived at the current solution to multitasking before anyone else properly attempted any solution. But now it exists to shit up my TV experience

[@MatthewMakesAU]

I loved my Tungsten T2

[@HandlebarWorkshops]

I worked for Motorola as a software engineer on the network side in the early 2000's. I know that they had plans for touchscreens, but they were insistent that they would absolutely NOT license Qualcomm tech. They were Motorola, after all. They were the innovators of cellphone tech. They'd figure it out themselves. Well...

[@bobweiram6321]

Apple had a cold hard start after its competitors made their pitches. Microsoft had already released Windows CE for OEM handhelds and tablets. Dozens of mobile devices offered audio playback capabilities threatening the iPod and Apple's future. The company, which survived financial ruin, appeared to be a helpless Darth Vader, sitting quietly monitoring the ensuing onslaught of its newly acquired empire. It was about to lose it all again with an emboldened army now breaching the ship. Apple suddenly sprung up from its throne grabbing its iPhone and stormed out of the command chamber. Airlocks shuttered thunderously behind as it made its way down the ship's pitch dark outboard into a foreboding stillness interrupted by periodic red flashes, piercing sirens, and exhaust of its artificial lungs. Unbeknownst to the infiltrators, they were being watched as they attempted to sneak in with their weapons drawn. Apple turned on its iPhone to emit a six-colored rainbow laser beam. Aided by the force, it sheared and sliced through the stampede of oncoming bodies as it marched down the passageway, telepathically flinging their carcasses into piles. Finally, it reached the entrance and stood on the precipice in quiet solitude, gazing out to the distant flickering afterburners of enemy ships scurrying off into deep space. Its empire was spared from eminent destruction to start a new chapter in computing history.

[@bradlyely]

I think your main channel got hacked man.

[@ahbushnell1]

They failed because you left. :)

[@Dlutheran]

😂

[@LTVoyager]

😂 Um, no.

[@NickSayers]

A wooden slinky conveyor belt is the kinda innovation that woulda saved the company.

[@mikeguitar9769]

Matthias had a RIM job?

[@Dlutheran]

@@mikeguitar9769 yeppers 👍

[@IslandHermit]

Way back when I briefly worked on a project to convert Toronto's stoplights from electromechanical controllers to electronic control over a network, so that the city could adjust timing dynamically to account for traffic flow. The local microcomputers in that network used QNX and I found it to be a really nice, reliable, lightweight Unix for the time. So a good choice on RIM's part, IMO, even if it didn't work out in the end.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

one thing that bugged me about QNX is how they kept harping on about microkernels. But other than that, I agree with you

[@miahsbrokengarage]

My favorite Blackberry feature is how it disabled the wireless modem when the battery got low. If you then charged the phone, the wireless modem would stay disabled until you _manually_ enabled it again. The number of times I missed notifications because the system wouldn't automatically re-enable the wireless modem after being charged was... too many.

[@MrFatalZero]

Great insights! Thank you Matthias! I started working in telecom part time besides uni in 2008. Sold heaps of blackberry, Nokia 9300/9500 communicator and later on the early smartphones like XDA with Windows Mobile. As a techie and working in the industry at that time, I really enjoyed this. Thank you!

[@washoecreative595]

I started in tech marketing X.25 hardware in 1985. Man, those were the days.

[@TimSavage-drummer]

My first real software job was writing software for PalmOS (later Pocket PC) and using various mobile data services most of which died out in favor of GPRS. Most of the software was for couriers, security guards for scanning barcodes or receiving jobs. Similar to what you describe we had to be very miserly with data, mobile data was insanely expensive with many of our customers paying around $100/MB. TCP wasn't an option as any packet loss would very quickly rack up data use via retries and we did everything over UDP and squeezing as much as we could into each UDP packet.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

those were the good old days, no sending XML back and forth and all that crap, just optimized and packed binary C data structures!

[@TimSavage-drummer]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Many years later I built a native application for latest Blackberry OS (the QNX one) as part of their launch push to get applications into their ecosystem. The OS wasn't bad and the development experience was really good, but was lagging behind Android in features. I wonder if there was a license to Nokia as it was all QT based. Blackberry gave me a device at the time and I used it for several years, have yet to have another phone with the same level of voice quality.

[@rollo0470]

Great video, brings back a lot of memories. Also might be worth adding the app-based BlackBerry competitor "Good for Enterprise", later "Good Dynamics" which of course BlackBerry ended up acquiring. I still feel there's a niche for a locked-down limited-functionality mobile device for highly-regulated industries. We were never able to completely replicate the corporate BlackBerry device experience with it's seamless built-in VPN access to on-premise web servers. Even today, the MDM device enrolment and management experience with iOS/Android isn't as good as BlackBerry used to be.

[@TonyAiuto]

That was an awesome history lesson. I can only imagine the "oh shit" moment at the Google interview when you realized RIM was years behind.

[@whitewolf8758]

I really liked the blackberry when they were available. We even invested into their stocks and did extremely well. Sold out right before the fall.

[@zsigmondkara]

The Blackberry PRIV (the Passport a close second) was still my favourite phone I ever had.

[@onlyeyeno]

I really enjoyed these "insights from the inside" , thanks for sharing :) Best regards.

[@FormulaFanboy]

Mr. Matthias, I am asking you this in your comments since I can't find a more direct way of contacting you. Could you by any chance consider uploading a video where you talk at length about your time working at RIM? Just interesting stories or explaining what it was like to work there, what the people were like, etc. Some of us would be very interested :)

[@fabiosemino2214]

Loved my 7290, I was given one with the BIS service to help manage an IT helpdesk, I even used many times the browser consulting the newly built mobile browser of Trenitalia that could give you the status of a train almost in real time so I could switch stations in case of troubles, also the wheel interface was very good

[@TopCat2021]

Thank you for sharing, I really enjoyed your insider history lesson of RIM and the Blackberry phone. I enjoy your videos and ingenuity this was different but equally enjoyable.

[@jonfreeman9682]

You nailed. There is NO WAY Blackberry could have saved itself. They were dead before they even came out with the first Blackberry.

[@tommysedin]

Agreed, "No social media" is the best feature!

[@J_punkt_O_punkt]

great history. one thing leaves a bitter taste in my mouth: when your analysis is true and rim couldn't be saved (and i think you're right), it just means that its impossible to compete against the monopolies. That's a harsh reality. I hope they get broken up. I actually used an palm pre which went the "start with linux and put a nice UI on top" route and your analysis is absolutely spot on for this as well: while the UI was great, the battery life was really poor.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

The only think that can kill those big companies is the big companies themselves. And they do, it just takes time. Just look at the giants from the 80's, where are they now?

[@bobthemagicmoose]

Random tidbit: In the NTP v RIM patent suit, RIM was able to use post-grant proceedings to essentially ask the USPTO to reconsider the patents. I believe they were successful and that was the springboard of the Novak Druce patent firm (it has changed around a bit, but it's back to Novak Druce). It also kickstarted a boom of reexamination proceedings at the USPTO.

[@JeffYantha]

I remember using QNX at Algonquin as part of our real time OS class, such a blast from the past! It's very interesting hearing an insider's view of what has happening.

[@warrenmusselman9173]

I loved the Blackberry. I was the senior IT guy at a Fortune 200 company when they came out and I quickly was responsible for provisioning literally thousands of them for company staff. From an Enterprise perspective, Blackberries totally rocked - extremely fine grained security setting, group policies to restrict web browsing and non-business uses, PTT "radio" function to keep my support staff in touch and best of all remote provisioning. From my Boomer/computer engineer perspective, I adored the physical keyboard. That said, once the iPhone came out, Blackberry dropped the ball entirely in my estimation. Within a week of the iPhone release, I had corporate executives clamoring for them to be tied into our enterprise systems. The modern smart phone race went on while Blackberry retained its largely corporate user base and they lost the thread of where the industry went. Sad.

[@luogl]

Seriously though, normally I don't do this kind of stereotyping, but dude, you are proud profound smart Canadian.

[@chm985]

I absolutely loved the qnx blackberry, they were faster then android & iPhone, gestures like we have now, but the apps just never came.

[@chriswatson2407]

Fantastic information though you didn't state your position at RIM.

[@GWAIHIRKV]

Really interesting. And we are seeing a similar outlook for Ford, GM etc with Tesla doing the Apple/Google bit. . . I was also in electronics, but from the 80’s. Worked on one of the first ABS systems for cars.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Except Apple and Google were bigger than RIM to begin with

[@SquintyGears]

Not really, cars are much more a construction infrastructure problem than a product design thing. Tesla got an apple like image but the problems they have from construction are painfully obvious. And the big names are just going to buys apple/google software anyways which users have been saying they prefer. And also very importantly, they get bailed out by the government every time they make poor decisions that would normally cause them to close...

[@GWAIHIRKV]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Technology wins over corporate speak🙂

[@rayroulstone3565]

Great video. My whole family were avid blackberry users and I even ran a home lab with exchange and Blackberry Enterprise Server.

[@50shadesofbeige88]

I had BBES as part of my environment until 2013. BBES hung on for a looong time. In fact, if I'm not mistaken the last of the QNX software is EOL this month.

[@HardyP2006]

regarding the hiring solution around Waterloo: We had bought a small company over there, adding some very specific technical knowledge to our portfolio, merged it with a small startup from California. But one of the reasons we gave up (I think in 2009...?) was the nearly impossible task to get good engineers in or to that area... RIM got everything, the rest was... well, there, bcs even RIM had no need for them...

[@Nathanm7977]

I loved my blackberry. hearing your information about the history and enter working is mind blowing.

[@thecorpooration]

Wow, lots to think about here. The thought that Blackberry was doomed before it even really took off in the early 2000's is unsettling.

[@johannes_franciscus_kok]

Now that was a nice piece of history I did not know about, thanks for sharing this Matthias extremely off-topic for your channel 😇

[@RNMSC]

I know a few people who looked at the original RIM text devices, not as pagers or smart phones, but as mobile writing instruments, because of the speed of text entry that one could get. Also it was something that could be dropped into a pocket or purse, had long battery life, and would quickly sync with your main computer. It may not have been handy for editing, but often when writing, the objective is to get the idea moved from bouncing around in your head and possibly getting lost, into a form that can be edited later. When I look at the equipment on the market today for that, it all looks like either far too much hardware to haul around without a dedicated bag. There are a couple of portable keyboards that are about the right size, but they mostly look like someone thinks that everyone who's interested in such a device is going to be using them at a table or desk.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

I heard the Tandy 100 was also popular for that -- long battery life, and a real keyboard you could touch type on.

[@RNMSC]

@@matthiasrandomstuff2221 Agreed, it was. I still have my Tandy 200, which was the device that Tandy derived life support patent license fees for the clamshell design of a screen that flips down over the keyboard. The problem again is that both devices are not likely to fit in a pocket, or a clip on a belt. (Mine has the problem that the on/off button isn't functioning properly. Once the device gets turned on, you can't turn it off. I'm pretty sure it's a push on/push off button, and that it will take me all of 10 min to replace if I can find the appropriate replacement switch, but it will work fine as a plugged in device. I'd kind of like something about the size of a Flipper Zero but with a keyboard and text editor built in. Something that one could pull out on mass transit, or while carpooling to work, use to take notes or scribble a story idea or plot in, that can then be fleshed out on the computer at home that night, or next November. If it can sync notes to a phone to iDrive, or Google Drive, that might be a handy feature, but then we start getting into feature creep, and I'm thinking that something like that should be added to the timeline for later updates.

[@stellamcwick8455]

I see the potential for a collaboration between Mathias and @BobbyBroccoli that covers this saga in greater detail.

[@Pracedru]

Great reflections on this subject. Not sure if i need to see the movie now :)

[@oliver9089]

No social media is definitely a feature. I miss blackberry

[@JarrodStenberg]

I had a Blackberry Pearl. I had it for work, but I owned it, so I did whatever was interesting to me on it. I did my first mobile Amazon purchase on that, in fact. Funny, I developed the bad habits that everyone now has when I had this. My wife, correctly, called me on my constant distraction. Life was better before all of this.

[@Biker9233]

Ummm why is his main channel called Ripple? Dont tell me it got stolen?

[@abdallah-abdelazim]

And I thought Mathias is just a brilliant carpenter 😅

[@bashmohandes]

RIM should have acquired Android before Google did, someone was sleeping on the wheel there for sure.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

at that time, what we had was still fine for the market.

[@Intelligenz_Bestie]

unfortunately it looks like your main channel got hacked

[@awogbob]

Where did you go after RIM in 2007? I find the behind the curtains look at tech so interesting

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Mostly been working for myself ever since.

[@luogl]

Thanks for sharing! Also, being an awesome Canadian!

[@gjdewald]

I was using an HP handheld computer, which was a computer and not a communication device. A simple pager was all the communication I wanted. An offline handheld computer that fit in my pocket was all I needed for PIM and keeping my schedule. I eventually got a Blackberry when the cellphone technology was better. The software was the best thing about the Blackberry. It really integrated PIM and communications very well. The Blackberry was based on efficiently handling small amounts of data. The modern smartphone is an entertainment device designed to handle huge amounts of data transmitted fast. What's the point of being efficient with small amounts of data when you can transmit, receive, and process huge amounts of data. Now, my little PIM is just an app, not a whole device.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

it bugs me how much data the stuff uses these days. With a blackberry-like approach, the cheapest data plan would be more than enough. But the carriers would hate that!

[@davejoseph5615]

I didn't expect to find a Blackberry history lecture from my favorite woodworker. I do find it strange that in 2024 I still can be talking to someone on a smartphone and have distortion and dropouts as they go through an underpass etc. Why don't they have error-detection/correction? Also recently watched an interesting video where they compared a modern smartphone with the Cray-1 supercomputer. You also mentioned Craigslist which is a desperately out-of-date website seriously needing an total redesign.

[@rezdm]

My impression, is that RIM lost it at the moment when it declined the idea of moving from integrated solution, to providing a service (the same messaging service) as an application for iOS/Android. I remember these discussions that RIM wanted to continue providing integrated solution at the time, when their phones' UX was already behind "current expectations". Yes, there is still BB app now, but the moment in 2009-2010 was lost.

[@Gndt1]

Very interesting to hear the inside version. I always expected apple to get in the picture and was not surprised when they did. Had RIM known and had the timing been right, they probably should have leveraged their expertise and sold the selves to one of the big players... which is what most innovative Canadian companies do. Greed is good, but it leaves Canada as a US farm team.

[@xjustinjx]

sidekick II and G1 are the best phones i've ever touched, and i've touched 100s from 2000 till now. just from being fascinated with phones and in friend groups who were also (and a friends dad worked in a cell store in the 90s/200s)

[@micah_lee]

I watched the movie a few weeks ago. It is interesting how it was in that vs how you described it. It is the same exact storyline, thankfully. I wonder which character was supposed to be you, Lol. Great video and legendary story

[@trep53]

Great soup to nuts Blackberry story. In their heyday it was a must have useful tool that worked. Looking back from todays view it seems obvious it wasn’t going to live long.

[@brody2642]

Love these videos. Thank you Matthias

[@theRealRindberg]

QNX :) I remember trying it on my PC once. It fit on a 3.5" floppy disk! The whole OS!

[@robmausser]

I think if BlackBerry/RIM had simply abandoned their own OS and trying to make BlackBerry10 OS and as quickly as possible moved to Android, they could have potentially saved themselves. Simply take Android and modify it like Samsung were doing to have their more enterprise components like secure email, BBM etc on top rather than trying to create their own OS from QNX. They eventually tried to switch to Android but by that time it was far too late. If they could have positioned themselves as the "secure, corporate" Android option, but still had all the offerings of Android people wanted (apps!), I think they could still be around today.

[@chrisharper2658]

For the little bit I know of QNX that made a lot of sense but sounds like they were way too late to the party. The general public would never have recognized or cared about the corporate benefits but it is interesting to see how companies like Microsoft are so good at both the consumer and corporate markets in spite of there constant security vulnerabilities. That's why my Windows always run in a VirtualBox via Linux. But I'm still buying used CDs. What's wrong with that?

[@rickpalechuk4411]

Thanks for the insight I came late with OS10 but really enjoyed it at the time. Cheers,

[@dege13]

I like your exercise to see what RIM could have done differently. What if BlackBerry was willing to sell to Google or Apple? What year would have been best for that? I left BlackBerry in 2012.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

That would have required interest from Apple or Google

[@killsalot78]

love all the engineering talk in this, they really don't make em like they used to

[@gamingguy9006]

I am kinda sad that you did not mention the aol communicator variant of thr origina; rom device

[@MrQuickLine]

I loved my BlackBerry Pearl so much. I miss that little phone!

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

its the only mobile phone I ever kept in my pocket -- though only when travelling.

[@lucianacarvalho4095]

that understanding of how to manage the signals and encryption messages was genious stuff back then. unfortunately the brand did not make it to Brazil, at least not at the point of success. but still. .. me for instance, I'm just getting to know Blackberry and all the history, saw the movie yesterday and bought a phone just a week ago 😊 by the way. ..I never liked the typing on the screen idea. since the beginning 🙃

[@glxxyz]

Blackberry was also horrendous for non-corporate consumer users for a long time. Until at least 2009 they still expected consumers to use BIS for email, with 1 way email sync, no read/delete/moved synced back the server! iPhone at the time just used push-IMAP.

[@OnionKnight541]

modern day software engineers are sooooo bad compared to the guys that built the stuff back in the day. modern day SWE get paid $200k a year and truly can barely write functions for a CRUD app in 6 weeks. but 20 years ago, an engineer was under-paid, over-worked, and knew what the hell they were doing. it's insane how the industry has changed.

[@David_Hogue]

That's not at all my experience.

[@Borv413]

Ayo, IDK how to contact you but your main channel seems to have been hacked

[@firstlast446]

After listening to your section on what could have been done I came away thinking that maybe the only thing that could have saved RIM was maybe a big microsoft partnership to work on mobile devices using their OS and RIM's device expertise. Still seems like a huge long shot anyway though but if windows phones becoming windows/blackberries helping them bepushed to market just a few years earlier I could see it.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

well, same with Nokia. And that didn't work out. RIM had no interest in being acquired when they were still doing well, and after that, it was probably too late.

[@74357175]

Can we compare with Garmin? Could Blackberry have pivoted to wearables, where your expertise in integration and battery life would have remained relevant? (And still is today!)

[@TheSliderW]

their smartphone from circa 2015 was amazing. Android compatibility was nice but the base rim OS and apps were so elegant.

[@kennedy0tm]

How much of this is determined by being in Waterloo and not Silicon Valley? Being able to find the engineering talent to run projects in parallel, but also everyone would have been more aware of what Apple and Google were doing and more in touch with what the future would look like.

[@BillyNoMates1974]

TTP Group spun off TTP Com (mobile division) to Motorolla which then sold the IP to Google. The building that TTP Com grew into is now being used by Astra Zenica

[@tapperdb]

Thank you for sharing an important part of history

[@baddudecornpop7328]

I _still_ loathe not having a physical keyboard on my phone. You can’t replace the tactile feedback. I could hammer out texts mostly without looking down to the keyboard on my old Helio

[@bflat99]

Where did you go to work after blackberry?

[@serdiefgotreb]

In Mexico drug leaders used the secure Blackberry comms to relay police/army/other rival gangs information across an entire city network of "hawks" (usually teenagers). It was very fast and very accurate. They could monitor and surveille an entire city in a couple of minutes. It was impressive. If they got caught, they had the ability to reset the device quite fast, leaving the army or rivals outside of the safe network.

[@edconcilio1628]

I still use my BlackBerry KeyOne. Love the keyboard.

[@mackfisher4487]

Rim-800 and the great little Rim-850 I worked for ARDIS a twoway data radio co which was started by IBM/Motorola. The ARDIS/Motient network was one of the largest Rim customers, the network had coverage in all major city. before Cellular. Cellular was the Achilles' heel that killed the 800Mhz Motient network. It eventually auctioned off its 800 frequencies to cellular carriers.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

the Ardis network is one of many things I didn’t mention. kind of a peer to mobitex. I always thought the mdc4800 protocol was kind of inelegant compared to mobitex, and the higher speed protocol also had design flaws in regard to how the modulation worked.

[@TheoSmith249]

This is a lesson in jurisdictional scale and hubris.

[@brody2642]

I’d love more blackberry videos!

[@WildmanTech]

I was a PalmPilot fan, and Blackberry was the only intermediate to migrate to Android.

[@auroran0]

I think maybe adopting Qnx earlier could have given RIM a better chance at survival. My friend Martin introcuded it to me in around 1991 when he was running QNX2 at home. He later moved to Kitchner/Waterloo to work at Blackberry. (around 2005 If my memory about it is good)

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

Maybe, but the motivation wouldn't have been there from either side.

[@AAjax]

Former employee that joined just after peak RIM. While I agree with Matthias that nothing could have saved BB as a phone device company, they responded poorly and squandered all of the first mover advantage. RIM could have leveraged several of their technologies to be a big player in other ecosystems, but they refused to pivot. On top of all that, RIM had the worst case of the Peter Principle I've ever seen in my professional career. Gobs of people who joined the company early, who were formerly retail workers in Waterloo, were eventually promoted to directors and upper level managers.

[@BootSequence]

Hey matthias, ive been a subscriber for a long time, Im right now scrolling back on your videos tab to see which videos I've seen first, but anyways. Would you let me interview you about your journey from the insanity at blackberry to your youtube journey ? I literally cant remember the oldest video I saw from you. From my backgrounds rememberance, didn't you make your own power supply ? Anyways. Avid watcher, big tech enjoyer. I want to do bigger things on youtube. would love to interview someone I've watched for so many years.

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

email me

[@JesusvonNazaret]

Guess I was one of the last Blackberry users up till beginning of December 2023, when my bank decided to drop android 8 support and there was no newer andriod version for my BB Key2. I want that keyboard back, especially the keyboard from my BB Passport...

[@glxxyz]

It's classic Creative Destruction. RIM was the best at making buggy whips when the horse-drawn world needed them, but didn't see the automobile coming.

[@Martin_3D]

Hola Matt, que está pasando con tu canal principal?? 😮

[@Laundry_Hamper]

What stack does your PantoRouter use?

[@AraCarrano]

Loved the keyboard on my Samsung Galaxy Saga Windows Mobile

[@mahmoudomara5421]

Thanks for the video. Very informative

[@zka77]

I've had the misfortune to use blackberries for years. An OS that was compatible with nothing, no software support, browser collapsing continously, I mean, literally all the time. Good things about BB: good build quality and the little button on the headset was a mute/unmute button. Apple's headset button just disconnects, wtf who needs that feature on a button? :D Keyboard was nice but I didn't have to use the phone to write long letters so it was just a waste of space halving my screen area.

[@hieyeque1]

Hi Mattias, I know this is off topic for this video. But I have a request. I have a Tesla and a Pulsar G12KBN generator. It's not an inverter generator. I know inverter generators are preferred because of the pure sine wave. But there is no official information on Tesla's and generators - everyone always says "be sure to use an inverter generator" - but with an inverter built in to the car - and supposing it's pretty beefy, can you test to see if a Tesla actually needs an inverter generator? Thanks!

[@matthiasrandomstuff2221]

sure, send me a tesla and generator

[@hieyeque1]

haha, If I were that wealthy, I would buy an inverter generator!@@matthiasrandomstuff2221