How did the name blackberry come about?

**FuzzyB** · 12-05-2011, 09:11 PM

I've often wondered how RIM came up with the name blackberry for their devices. Anyone know?

**bluetroll** · 12-05-2011, 09:14 PM

that's a good question...

**RoseBud68** · 12-05-2011, 09:17 PM

From Wikipedia

The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager in Munich, Germany. The name BlackBerry was coined by the marketing company Lexicon Branding.

In 2003, the more commonly known smartphone BlackBerry was released, which supports push email, mobile telephone, text messaging, Internet faxing, Web browsing and other wireless information services. It is an example of a convergent device. The original BlackBerry devices, the RIM 850 and 857, used the DataTac network.

BlackBerry first made headway in the marketplace by concentrating on email. RIM currently offers BlackBerry email service to non-BlackBerry devices, such as the Palm Treo, through its BlackBerry Connect software.

The original BlackBerry device had a monochrome display, but all current models have color displays. All models, except for the Storm series and the all-touch Torch 9850 had a built-in QWERTY keyboard, optimized for "thumbing", the use of only the thumbs to type. The Storm 1 and Storm 2 include a SureType keypad for typing. Originally, system navigation was achieved with the use of a scroll wheel mounted on the right side of phones prior to the 8700. The trackwheel was replaced by the trackball with the introduction of the Pearl series which allowed for 4 way scrolling. The trackball was replaced by the optical trackpad with the introduction of the Curve 8500 series. Models made to use iDEN networks such as Nextel and Mike also incorporate a push-to-talk (PTT) feature, similar to a two-way radio.

**FuzzyB** · 12-05-2011, 09:23 PM

Thanks rose...I'd still like to actually know how they actually came up with the name.

**ridesno159** · 12-05-2011, 09:32 PM

The keyboard sure looks a whole lot like a blackberry to me...

Anyway, I found this by typing, "how did blackberry ge" into Google, it was the first one.

http://www.canada.com/topics/technol...8-d8bdd4901496

**youknwwho** · 12-05-2011, 10:20 PM

Yeah, the menu key sure look like a bunch of blackberry fruit

**llllBULLSEYE** · 12-05-2011, 10:21 PM

good article. learned a little more about RIM

**up488** · 12-05-2011, 10:27 PM

Rose is on the ball tonight! lol

BTW Rose, did you give your son his new Torch yet?

**RoseBud68** · 12-05-2011, 10:39 PM

Originally Posted by up488

Rose is on the ball tonight! lol

BTW Rose, did you give your son his new Torch yet?

Sure did & he loves it. After playing with it a bet I could see why. It really is a great phone. Now If I can just talk AT&T CS to give me one for a penny as well....

**sam_b77** · 12-05-2011, 11:35 PM

From what I read, it had nothing to do with the keys resembling Blackberries. As another post suggested the marketing company Lexicon shortlisted a few names and Blackberry was chosen by those in charge as the the phones were black and the name had a ring to it.

Quite a tame and boring corporate branding exercise.

**up488** · 12-05-2011, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by RoseBud68

Sure did & he loves it. After playing with it a bet I could see why. It really is a great phone. Now If I can just talk AT&T CS to give me one for a penny as well....

It's worth a shot. No harm in trying, right?! Glad he's enjoying it.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

**FuzzyB** · 12-06-2011, 06:16 AM

Originally Posted by sam_b77

From what I read, it had nothing to do with the keys resembling Blackberries. As another post suggested the marketing company Lexicon shortlisted a few names and Blackberry was chosen by those in charge as the the phones were black and the name had a ring to it.

Quite a tame and boring corporate branding exercise.

There has to be more to it than that. Sounds like a bunch of dudes sitting around a half keg came up with this.

**Xterra2** · 12-06-2011, 06:41 AM

Mike and Jim were hungry so they decided to go to a resturant after a hectic day at work, problem was that the resturant was closed so they went to a nearby supermarket and they couldn't find anything so they opted for fruits instead, they wanted strawberry but the supermaket strawberry wasn't kept in a safe place so the color started changing almost to black then jim said "mike look a black berry over there" mike said "blackberry ? Sounds like a nice name" jim replied "yeah awesome name, let's use this name" mike agreed "yeah totally down with that" they eventually ended up hungry but got the blackberry name

**Barljo** · 12-06-2011, 06:44 AM

Originally Posted by FuzzyB

There has to be more to it than that. Sounds like a bunch of dudes sitting around a half keg came up with this.

Welcome to Marketing and PR...

**sam_b77** · 12-06-2011, 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by FuzzyB

There has to be more to it than that. Sounds like a bunch of dudes sitting around a half keg came up with this.

Well somewhat like that assuming that branding solution companies like Lexicon come up with brand names while having beer.

Actually the way they came up with the name is there in the book Blackberry written by Rod McQueen.
It's a nice book for RIM fans and has a lot of interesting stories about Blackberry and it's evolution along with the vision and concepts of Mike Lazaridis.
Since you are so interested, I have taken a few Macro shots of the relevant pages and uploaded in this post. Interesting read...It actually is quite like you suggested minus the keg of beer

.

**luqman24** · 12-06-2011, 03:12 PM

Mike and Jim were eating a blackberry one day and...Voila!

**chiefbroski** · 12-06-2011, 03:16 PM

Lexicon branding does what they do best, and that is to come up with powerful, iconic, memorable, distinctive yet simple names for products. One of their suggestions was Blackberry.

**kingnba6** · 12-06-2011, 03:17 PM

good information here

**sam_b77** · 12-06-2011, 03:48 PM

Come to think of it, it was very nearly "Strawberry".

**jrocke0w0** · 12-06-2011, 07:18 PM

i think that if they called it a strawberry, it would have to be a red device. too blingy so they went for blackberry instead. :/

**Rootbrian** · 12-06-2011, 07:30 PM

Always wondered why they chose the name.

**BBZ10FAN** · 12-06-2011, 08:12 PM

Thanks for the excerpts from the book. I know someone at RIM and was once told that the reason behind the word BlackBerry has to do with the fact that "B" is considered to be a power letter,hence they are in caps.

**doug1010** · 12-06-2011, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by RoseBud68

From Wikipedia

The first BlackBerry device, the 850, was introduced in 1999 as a two-way pager...

Hehe I remember those pagers from when I was in school. Lucky co-op students

Little did I know what would become of rim

That was before I even had a digital camera. lol
I think i got one a year or so later because of a pricing error at futureshop. kodak dc3400 2mp. Got a 64MB CF card for it later on! HUGE! lol
Anyway Thats the kind of technology I had when BB first came out. BB was revolutionary

Time flies