2020 is giving a lot of itself. Beyond the covid-19 pandemic, this year will be remembered for the UFO videos declassified by the Pentagon, for the devastating explosion of the port of Lebanon, the announcement of the departure of Leonel Messi from Fútbol Club Barcelona and the return of the BlackBerry.
The well-known mobile phone brand, which experienced its moment of splendor in 2013, ceased its activities in 2016 after several years losing users to the benefit of brands such as Apple, Huawei, Samsung or Sony Ericsson. Four years after that decision, the brand's website announced a few days ago the launch of a new terminal that will not be manufactured by the original company but by the Tejana OnwardMobility company, after acquiring the mandatory license.
"BlackBerry was a 'chic brand," recalls Alberto Ballestín. "Executives, celebrities, politicians ... It was a phone with iPhone imaging at its peak, with the addition that it had something that the rest no: it was the phone for those who had something to communicate "
Founded in 1996, the first BlackBerry model to be launched on the market was the 850. It was a device equipped with a full keyboard whose concept was halfway between the PDAs popularized by the Palm company and smartphones. Although it was neither one thing nor the other, its appearance in 1999 was a revolution in the world of wireless communication, especially for its messaging system. When in 2003 the company launched the first model that, in addition to sending messages, allowed you to make phone calls, the popularity of BlackBerry soared. “Although mobiles with a QWERTY keyboard already existed, until then none had made text communication the heart of the operating system, its graphical environment and the design of the device itself. It also helped enormously that BlackBerry Messenger made it possible to circumvent the usual SMS pricing and offer secure communication options; it was WhatsApp before WhatsApp ”, explains Alberto Ballestín, a writer specialized in technology and video games for twenty years.
In just a decade, the one between 2003 and 2013, BlackBerry users went from the initial half million to almost 80 million. An achievement that was due, not only to the evolution and improvement of its devices, but to a good communication strategy. In addition to signing agreements with the main telephone operators to give away or finance their devices to new customers, BlackBerry had the best prescribers of the moment. Celebrities, politicians and businessmen ranging from Kim and Khloe Kardashian to Christina Aguilera, not forgetting Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Anna Wintour, Angela Merker and, above all, Barak Obama. "BlackBerry had something that can no longer be found, and that is that it was a 'chic' brand," recalls Ballestín. “Executives, celebrities, politicians ... It was a phone with iPhone imaging at its peak, with the addition that it had something that the rest did not: it was the phone for those who had something to communicate. If the iPhone was the phone of the people who wanted to show off, the BlackBerries were the phone of 'those who did things', of 'the doers ' ”.
During the 2008 election campaign, Barack Obama did not part with his BlackBerry. The Democratic candidate seemed to be aware that the device gave him those attributes of an organized person with things to say, to the point that the phone became as iconic as the Yes We Can! Slogan. or Hope's poster
During the 2008 election campaign, Barack Obama did not part with his BlackBerry. The Democratic candidate seemed to be aware that the device gave him those attributes of a responsible person, organized, with things to say, to the point that the phone became as iconic as the Yes We Can! Slogan. or the Hope poster designed by Shepard Fairey. However, when Obama took office, everything changed. From stating that to leave his BlackBerry they would have to "rip it out of his hands" he went on to accept resignedly that his position prevented him from having a smartphone that could take photos, play music or receive messages. In exchange, he was provided with a device so simple that, during an interview on Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, Obama even called it "one of those toy phones that you give to a three-year-old." When he left office in 2017 and was once again able to choose which phone to use, Obama opted for an iPhone because by then BlackBerry had exited the mobile business.
“Without a doubt, maintaining the physical keyboard took its toll. Although early virtual keyboards were slow and cumbersome, they quickly gained in speed and ease of use thanks to predictive text and gesture input. There was also a circumstance that was repeated several times later: there is no space for a third mobile platform. With Apple out of it and Android rising like foam thanks to the support of Google, BlackBerry was losing market share more and more rapidly ”, explains Alberto Ballestín who also points out the innovations incorporated by the iPhone as a reason for this loss of popularity. “The ease of use of the iPhone clashed a lot with the BlackBerry OS, which had remained in its approaches closer to Symbian or Windows Mobile than to a modern, fast and efficient operating system. BlackBerry gained everything it gained from its messaging, but it lost everything it had largely due to application support and a much inferior and progressively stagnant operating system. "
Determined not to repeat the mistakes made in the past, those responsible for OnwardMobility have announced that the new BlackBerry will have an Android operating system -as already happened in some of the latest 2015 and 2016 models-, and 5G connectivity. However, they have again opted for the QWERTY keyboard which, while a distinctive feature of the classic BlackBerry, occupies a quarter of the device and, consequently, reduces the size of the screen. “It is pure nostalgia. There have been several attempts to rescue physical keyboards and none particularly successful, ”explains Ballestín. “They are something very minority and that adds very little value to a mobile phone, especially now that large screens prevail. It may find a certain reception among some purists, but there is no doubt that it is a niche product rather than a generalist one ”.
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