Gallery: BlackBerry's Rise and Fall in 10 Phones

  • This image may contain Cell Phone Electronics Mobile Phone and Phone
    Blackberry
    01

    BB6210-1.jpg

    BlackBerry had its breakout moment in 2003 with Quark, the first line of RIM devices to incorporate a phone, email, web, and BBM all in one now-familiar package.
  • Keith Pardy Chief marketing Officer of
    AFP/Getty Images
    02

    BBPearl-GettyImages-101944134.jpg

    BlackBerry had flirted with the consumer market before, but the Pearl was its first everyman smartphone. It was compact, included a camera for the first time, and introduced a tiny trackball for freewheeling navigation.
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    Oleksiy Maksymenko/Alamy
    03

    BBCurve.jpg

    The Curve was like a grown-up Pearl. Or at least, a wider one, incorporating the trackball into a beefier, more powerful, higher resolution device. Also notable as BlackBerry’s last device before the iPhone.
  • Blackberry Maker RIM To Report Quarterly Earnings
    Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
    04

    BBBold-GettyImages-147363360.jpg

    When you think of BlackBerry, the Bold is the device that pops into your head. Its most important feature was the iconic, premium look that marked the height of BlackBerry’s powers. At the time, the company had over 50 percent US market share—more than five times the year-old iPhone.
  • Blackberry Storm 9530 touch screen smartphone with illuminated display isolated on white background with clipping path
    Oleksiy Maksymenko/Alamy
    05

    BBStorm.jpg

    Oops! Here’s where the wheels started to come off, or more specifically, the trackball. The Storm was BlackBerry’s first fully touchscreen smartphone, and it was a delirious mess. It didn’t even have Wi-Fi. In late 2008.
  • Image may contain Cell Phone Electronics Mobile Phone Phone Human and Person
    Blackberry
    06

    BBTorch.jpg

    Before the Torch’s 2010 release, then-CEO Jim Bastille called it “"a quantum leap over anything that's out there." Nah. Despite cleverly combining a full QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen, extremely poor sales doused the Torch from the start. By now, BlackBerry’s market share was under five percent.
  • Image may contain Cell Phone Electronics Mobile Phone Phone Computer and Tablet Computer
    Getty Images
    07

    BBz10GettyImages-494570445.jpg

    BlackBerry’s first real stab at a modern operating system, BB10, didn’t come until 2013. The Z10 was its first host body. The hardware was fine. The lack of developer support was not, and never would be.
  • Image may contain Human Person Electronics Phone Mobile Phone Cell Phone Computer and Tablet Computer
    Blackberry
    08

    BBPassport10.jpg

    By fall of 2014, you at least couldn’t say BlackBerry wasn’t trying everything. The Passport answered the question: Smartphones, but square? Unfortunately, it turns out no one had been asking.
  • Image may contain Cell Phone Electronics Mobile Phone and Phone
    Blackberry
    09

    BBClassic9.jpg

    BlackBerry followed the Passport with the Classic, a nostalgia play—it looked just enough like the Bold—in a market obsessed with the future. The Classic sold well relative to BlackBerry’s other offerings, but that’s not saying much.
  • Image may contain Electronics Phone Cell Phone and Mobile Phone
    Blackberry
    10

    BBPriv.jpg

    There was a lot to like about last fall’s Priv, including its long-overdue Android operating system, but it was way too little, way too late, for an asking price that was way too high.
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