The story around the incredible rise of the world’s first smartphone, BlackBerry but the even quicker fall from grace!
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Research in Motion (RIM) was the company behind the development of BlackBerry and creating that first smartphone that could do so much. Having that power in the palm of your hand, if you are of a certain age (myself included) you would have had a BlackBerry phone. I think my first one was around 2006/2007 and it was the BlackBerry Pearl model. I was therefore rather interested in this film, given that iPhone and then Android well and truly took over what BlackBerry started.
Taking place throughout the late 1990s and into the early 2000s shows just how competitive it was and that the first people to come up with a smartphone and being able to use the internet and data combined with a mobile phone were going to be very rich and popular!
Mike Lazaridis had this idea and how he could make it work, along with his best friend Doug and other tech guys who worked for him. They had big plans and ideas, but were not salesmen and couldn’t negotiate at all. That is where Jim Balsillie comes in, after an unsuccessful pitch from Mike and Doug he loses his job after a poor decision in a meeting. Not disclosing this he approaches Mike and want’s to be CEO and own half of the company.
They agree a deal of co-CEO and 33% of the company, Jim goes all in thought and puts his house in with it when remortgaging to be able to pay the staff. he demands a prototype is made and the meetings begin. Although it seems as though it is just all going to be a disaster but Mike really does know his tech and how it would work across mobile networks.
I have to admit that I actually found all of that interesting and something you never really think about at all, how all of these things have been improved over the years and that unless our phones stop working for whatever reason we don’t really understand what has gone on behind the scenes to make them work. I do remember the BlackBerry having a lot of issues at times and a particular scene in the film made it make more sense, too many phones on the servers causing it to crash! It was probably the most complicated and expensive phone contract I have ever had and again that now makes sense when it was more data based rather than minutes based!
Within the film though we are given some amusing moments and one liners that break things up a little bit, as let’s face it overall the story could have been a little bit dry. I did however enjoy a particular line from 2007, you know when Apple made a small announcement of the iPhone and that they didn’t want BlackBerry to be known as the phone you had before you got an iPhone … I mean that’s true for me, and I am sure many more people! Another interesting thing was that I actually didn’t want to make the move as I loved the keyboard on my BlackBerry.
It got me thinking though that wouldn’t a market still be in place for the BlackBerry now, I mean even more so given people not working in offices and from home or moving around. Given contracts for data are cheaper than back in 2000s? I certainly would think so, but in January 2022 they pulled all of the phones and if anyone does happen to still have one they aren’t supported at all.
The film seemed to answer a lot of questions that I didn’t realise I had around the BlackBerry and smartphones. Honestly I really did love that phone! Despite the issues, it really was a statement having one and being a student at that time it felt pretty cool overall to be honest.
Jay Baruchel and Glenn Howerton were both fantastic as Mike and Jim, really leading the film in the best way. Keeping it extremely engaging and making you doubt at times if you wanted them to succeed or fail? I guess though given the very different characters BlackBerry wouldn’t have been a thing without them working together.
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