RIM: Thumbing its way to the top for nearly 25 years

Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM; TSX: RIM.TO), founded and headquartered in Waterloo in 1984, launched its addictive BlackBerry in 1999 and has for the past nine years been the innovator of smartphones, even after competition started building. More people prefer the BlackBerry than its rivals, such as the iPhone and Palm products as it is considered more secure than the competition.

Of course, RIM didn’t always produce the BlackBerry. For many years, it was the company which helped RAM Mobile-Data and Ericsson develop the Inter@ctive Pager. This was a two-way pager/e-mail device and a predecessor to devices like the BlackBerry. The first BlackBerry was, like the Inter@active Pager, a two-way pager. The modern BlackBerry, which includes telephone, calendar and push-email services, did not come until 2002.

The BlackBerry has gone through many different developments, including the addition of colour in 2004 (this version was the first to include the game, Brick Breaker). Around the same time, RIM also launched the first SureType keyboard device, the BlackBerry 71XX. This skinnier, more compact device was meant to appeal not only to their mainstream clientele, who are business people, but to the “masses” as well. Most keys represented two letters, and the keyboard includes a shift key. The 71XX was later replaced by the BlackBerry Pearl. Then in response to the increasing competition from the Apple i-phone, RIM just recently came out with the latest new BlackBerry product, the BlackBerry Storm, which like the i-phone, also features a touch-screen device. RIM also plans to roll out a flip in the near future.

Because one can read e-mail received in real time, many people became “addicted” to the device. This has  led to the term “CrackBerry,” which became Webster’s Dictionary’s  “New Word of the Year” in November 2006.

In addition to the applications which come with the device, there are plenty of websites where BlackBerry users can download additional applications such as games, ring tones and even social networking programs such as Facebook, making it very user-friendly to people outside of the traditional business world.

RIM has had legal trouble over the past few years regarding their patents, including a highly-publicized case in 2005-2006 which threatened to shut the entire system down in the United States. Things were eventually settled, but RIM had to pay $612.5 million US.

For a while, RIM stock was soaring very high at over 100 per share. Since the fall of the stockmarket, RIM has been in the low 60s. Its 52-week high was 148.32 and the 52-week low was 50.22. On Tuesday, October 15, RIM opened at 68.00 and closed at 60.12 at the NASDAQ.  Over at the TSX, RIM opened at 78.49, which was also its day high.  The low today was 59.5 and it closed at 70.0.  The 52-week high at the TSX was 150.30 and the 52-week low was 58.87.