Screen shot 2013 10 09 at 8.50.52 am

RIM timeline

By LFPress
  • Mike Lazaridis creates Research in Motion

  • RIM listed on TSX

  • BlackBerry 850 is introduced. It's a pager whose keys inspired the name.

  • 534,000 subscribers globally

  • Subscribers top 1 million

  • First Blackberry with camera. Webster’s New World College Dictionary named “crackberry” the “New Word of the Year.”

  • Steve Jobs of Apple unveils the iPhone

  • By year-end, iPhone sales top Blackberry sales

  • Newly-elected U.S. President Barack Obama says, “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.”

  • By Fall, the numbers of users in the U.S. has peaked at 21 million — it’s downhill from here. The Blackberry is passed by Google’s Android

  • BlackBerry’s hoped for saviour, the PlayBook tablet, is released to slow sales and criticism

  • Cut 2,000 jobs, 10-times as many as its previous biggest layoff. Workforce is reduced to 17,000.

  • Blackberry's Internet service suffers a massive outage

  • 79 million BlackBerry users globally but only 9 million in the United States; Stock price during the year tumbled 80%

  • Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resign as CEOs

  • RIM reports first net loss in years

  • Company changes its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry

  • 250 employees cut from research and development

  • Added layoff of 4,500 employees by end of 2013, about 40 percent of the workforce. 6,750 employees will remain

  • Fairfax Financial offer US$9 per share subject to conditions that could drive the price lower