BlackBerry
BlackBerry was a brand of smartphones and other related mobile services and devices. The line was originally developed and maintained by the Canadian company BlackBerry Limited (formerly known as Research In Motion, or RIM) from 1999 to 2016, after which it was licensed to various companies.[1]
This article is about the brand of electronic devices. For its parent company, see BlackBerry Limited. For the film, see BlackBerry (film). For the fruit, see Blackberry. For other uses, see Blackberry (disambiguation).Developer
BlackBerry Limited (1999–2016)
BB Merah Putih (Indonesia; 2016–2019)
Optiemus Infracom (India; 2017–2018)
TCL Corporation (Worldwide; 2016–2020)
OnwardMobility (Enterprise; 2020–2022)
Current:
Optiemus Infracom (South Asia)
FIH Mobile (Enterprise)
Former:
BlackBerry Limited
TCL (Worldwide)
BB Merah Putih (Indonesia)
January 19, 1999
January 4, 2022
Specializing in secure communications and mobile productivity, BlackBerry was once well known for the keyboards on most of its devices and software services that ran through its own servers.[2] At its peak in September 2011, there were 85 million BlackBerry subscribers worldwide.[3][4] However, BlackBerry lost its dominant position in the market due to the success of the Android and iOS platforms; its numbers had fallen to 23 million in March 2016, a decline of almost three-quarters.
On September 28, 2016, BlackBerry Limited announced it would cease designing its own BlackBerry devices in favor of licensing to partners to design, manufacture, and market.[5] The original licensors were BB Merah Putih for the Indonesian market, Optiemus Infracom for the South Asian market, and BlackBerry Mobile (a trade name of TCL Technology) for all other markets.[6][7]
Historically, BlackBerry devices used a proprietary operating system—known as BlackBerry OS—developed by BlackBerry Limited. In 2013, BlackBerry introduced BlackBerry 10, a major revamp of the platform based on the QNX operating system. BlackBerry 10 was meant to replace the aging BlackBerry OS platform with a new system that was more in line with the user experiences of Android and iOS platforms. In 2015, BlackBerry began releasing Android-based smartphones, beginning with the BlackBerry Priv.
Retail stores[edit]
Many BlackBerry retail stores operated outside North America, such as in Thailand, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates.[76][77] In December 2007 a BlackBerry Store opened in Farmington Hills, Michigan. The store offers BlackBerry device models from AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Sprint, the major U.S. carriers which offer smartphones. There were three prior attempts at opening BlackBerry stores in Toronto (Canada) and London (United Kingdom),[78] but they eventually folded.[79] There are also BlackBerry Stores operated by Wireless Giant at airports in Atlanta, Boston, Charlotte, Minneapolis–St. Paul, Philadelphia, Houston, and Newark,[80] but several have been slated for closing.[81]
On September 23, 2015, BlackBerry opened its first pop-up store in Frankfurt, Germany.
The BCESA, BlackBerry Certified Enterprise Sales Associate qualification, is the first of three levels of professional BlackBerry Certification.
More information on certifications is on the BlackBerry.com website.[82]
The BlackBerry Technical Certifications available are:
Security agencies access[edit]
Research in Motion agreed to give access to private communications to the governments of United Arab Emirates[147] and Saudi Arabia[148] in 2010, and India in 2012.[149] The Saudi and UAE governments had threatened to ban certain services because their law enforcement agencies could not decrypt messages between people of interest.[150]
It was revealed as a part of the 2013 mass surveillance disclosures that the American and British intelligence agencies, the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) respectively, have access to the user data on BlackBerry devices. The agencies are able to read almost all smartphone information, including SMS, location, e-mails, and notes through BlackBerry Internet Service, which operates outside corporate networks, and which, in contrast to the data passing through internal BlackBerry services (BES), only compresses but does not encrypt data.[151]
Documents stated that the NSA was able to access the BlackBerry e-mail system and that they could "see and read SMS traffic".[151] There was a brief period in 2009 when the NSA was unable to access BlackBerry devices, after BlackBerry changed the way they compress their data. Access to the devices was re-established by GCHQ.[151] GCHQ has a tool named SCRAPHEAP CHALLENGE, with the capability of "Perfect spoofing of emails from Blackberry targets".[152][153]
In response to the revelations BlackBerry officials stated that "It is not for us to comment on media reports regarding alleged government surveillance of telecommunications traffic" and added that a "back door pipeline" to their platform had not been established and did not exist.[151]
Similar access by the intelligence agencies to many other mobile devices exists, using similar techniques to hack into them.[151]
The BlackBerry software includes support for the Dual EC DRBG CSPRNG algorithm which, due to being probably backdoored by the NSA, the US National Institute of Standards and Technology "strongly recommends" no longer be used. BlackBerry Ltd. has however not issued an advisory to its customers, because they do not consider the probable backdoor a vulnerability. BlackBerry Ltd. also owns US patent 2007189527, which covers the technical design of the backdoor.[154]