Current:Home > InvestA new film explains how the smartphone market slipped through BlackBerry's hands -Mastery Money Tools
A new film explains how the smartphone market slipped through BlackBerry's hands
View
Date:2025-04-12 12:07:19
Like a lot of people, I'm a longtime iPhone user — in fact, I used an iPhone to record this very review. But I still have a lingering fondness for my very first smartphone — a BlackBerry — which I was given for work back in 2006. I loved its squat, round shape, its built-in keyboard and even its arthritis-inflaming scroll wheel.
Of course, the BlackBerry is now no more. And the story of how it became the hottest personal handheld device on the market, only to get crushed by the iPhone, is told in smartly entertaining fashion in a new movie simply titled BlackBerry.
Briskly adapted from Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff's book Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry, this is the latest of a few recent movies, including Tetris and Air, that show us the origins of game-changing new products. But unlike those earlier movies, BlackBerry is as much about failure as it is about success, which makes it perhaps the most interesting one of the bunch.
It begins in 1996, when Research In Motion is just a small, scrappy company hawking modems in Waterloo, Ontario. Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis, a mild-mannered tech whiz who's the brains of the operation. His partner is a headband-wearing, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles-loving goofball named Douglas Fregin, played by Matt Johnson, who also co-wrote and directed the movie.
Johnson's script returns us to an era of VHS tapes and dial-up internet, when the mere idea of a phone that could handle emails — let alone games, music and other applications — was unimaginable. That's exactly the kind of product that Mike and Doug struggle to pitch to a sleazy investor named Jim Balsillie, played by a raging Glenn Howerton, from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Jim knows very little about tech but senses that the Research In Motion guys might be onto something, and he joins their ragtag operation and tries to whip their slackerish employees into shape. And so, after a crucial deal with Bell Atlantic, later to be known as Verizon, the BlackBerry is born. And it becomes such a hit, so addictive among users, that people start calling it the "CrackBerry."
The time frame shifts to the early 2000s, with Research In Motion now based in a slick new office, with a private jet at its disposal. But the mix of personalities is as volatile as ever — sometimes they gel, but more often they clash.
Mike, as sweetly played by Baruchel, is now co-CEO, and he's still the shy-yet-stubborn perfectionist, forever tinkering with new improvements to the BlackBerry, and refusing to outsource the company's manufacturing operations to China. Jim, also co-CEO, is the Machiavellian dealmaker who pulls one outrageous stunt after another, whether he's poaching top designers from places like Google or trying to buy a National Hockey League team and move it to Ontario. That leaves Doug on the outside looking in, trying to boost staff morale with Raiders of the Lost Ark movie nights and maintain the geeky good vibes of the company he started years earlier.
As a director, Johnson captures all this in-house tension with an energetic handheld camera and a jagged editing style. He also makes heavy use of a pulsing synth score that's ideally suited to a tech industry continually in flux.
The movie doesn't entirely sustain that tension or sense of surprise to the finish; even if you don't know exactly how it all went down in real life, it's not hard to see where things are headed. Jim's creative accounting lands the company in hot water right around the time Apple is prepping the 2007 launch of its much-anticipated iPhone. That marks the beginning of the end, and it's fascinating to watch as BlackBerry goes into its downward spiral. It's a stinging reminder that success and failure often go together, hand in thumb-scrolling hand.
veryGood! (37252)
Related
- Current, future North Carolina governor’s challenge of power
- Danielle Collins is retiring from tennis after this year, but she's soaking up Olympics
- Bette Midler talks 'Mamma Mia!' moment in new movie: 'What have we done?'
- Joe Biden is out and Kamala Harris is in. Disenchanted voters are taking a new look at their choices
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- Simone Biles says she has calf discomfort during Olympic gymnastics qualifying but keeps competing
- 'Love Island UK' Season 11 finale: Release date, time, where to watch and which couples are left?
- Paris Olympics highlights: USA wins first gold medal, Katie Ledecky gets bronze Saturday
- Federal appeals court upholds $14.25 million fine against Exxon for pollution in Texas
- 3 dead, 2 critically injured after 25-foot pontoon boat capsizes on Lake Powell in northern Arizona
Ranking
- Could your smelly farts help science?
- Video shows small plane crashing into front yard of Utah home with family inside
- Rafael Nadal, Carlos Alcaraz put tennis in limelight, captivate fans at Paris Olympics
- 3 Members of The Nelons Family Gospel Group Dead in Plane Crash
- Rams vs. 49ers highlights: LA wins rainy defensive struggle in key divisional game
- Victor Wembanyama leads France over Brazil in 2024 Paris Olympics opener
- MLB trade deadline tracker 2024: Breaking down every deal before baseball's big day
- Allegations left US fencers pitted against each other weeks before the Olympics
Recommendation
Arkansas State Police probe death of woman found after officer
Photos and videos capture intense flames, damage from Park Fire in California
Rafael Nadal will compete in singles at the Paris Olympics, his manager tells the AP
Katie Ledecky Olympic swimming events: What she's swimming at 2024 Paris Olympics
Finally, good retirement news! Southwest pilots' plan is a bright spot, experts say
FIFA deducts points from Canada in Olympic women’s soccer tourney due to drone use
Wayfair Black Friday in July 2024: Save Up to 83% on Small Space & Dorm Essentials from Bissell & More
Sonya Massey called police for help, 30 minutes later she was shot in the face: Timeline