The BlackBerry is — quite literally — everywhere. President Barack Obama admits he can't live without it. Oprah Winfrey declared on her show that the BlackBerry is one of her "favorite things." BusinessWeek put the case for owning one bluntly in an article entitled "No BlackBerry: No Life." Launched in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsilliewith on a $15,000 loan, Research in Motion (RIM) has grown into one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. The reason: the BlackBerry. RIM had sold more than 50 million BlackBerrys by 2009 and sales of the handheld device generates annual profits in excess of $11 billion. BlackBerry: The Untold Story of Research in Motion is bestselling author Rod McQueen’s fascinating and absorbing biography of the device’s incredible popularity, as well as a never-before-seen glimpse into its origins and development — and the geniuses who were its inspiration.
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About the Author
ROD MCQUEEN has been a journalist for more than thirty years and has lived and worked professionally in London,Washington, D.C., and Toronto. During that time he has written for numerous magazines and newspapers, and has also done broadcast work. He is the author of eleven books, including Who Killed Confederation Life?, winner of the National Business Book Award, and the bestseller, The Eatons: The Rise and Fall of Canada`s Royal Family, winner of the Canadian Authors Association Award in history. The Icarus Factor, the unauthorized biography of Edgar Bronfman Jr., was published in 2004. He lives with his wife in Toronto.
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Excerpt from the Preface of
BlackBerry: Welcome to the Revolution Mike Lazaridis moves to the microphone with the easy self-assurance of a successful inventor whose creation, BlackBerry, is as well known in the family room as the boardroom. As he looks out at the shareholders attending the July 2009 annual meeting of Research In Motion (RIM), he knows that he has a room full of happy investors. The market capitalization of the firm ? the number of shares times the per share value ? is $43 billion, making RIM three times bigger than Motorola, a major competitor founded in 1928, more than half a century before RIM’s brave beginnings in 1984 as a two-man shop on borrowed money. Share price has recovered to $75, more than double the levels reached during the global financial crisis that battered all companies six months earlier. At the peak of his powers, Lazaridis is one of thoserare people in business who rightly deserves to be called a genius. “It’s a privilege to work with experts every day,” he said, referring to RIM’s 12,000 employees, including 5,000 in research and development, up from a total of only 100 employees in 1997. “We knew we were building a company for the long term,” he said. “We’re just absolutely obsessed with customer quality, the reliability of the product, and the value we’re providing the carrier, the enterprise, the IT manager, and the user. You turn it on and it just works,” he said.The device works so well that the company sold 50 million BlackBerrys by January 2009, half of those in the previous year alone. BlackBerry commands a 55 per cent market share of the U.S. smartphone market, and a 21 per cent global market share, as Research In Motion increasingly becomes the first choice for the world. RIM has also become Canada’s most valuable tech company with annual revenues of more than $11 billion and annual growth of 84 per cent, a meteoric rate usually reserved for start-ups. In fact, Fortune Magazine ranked RIM at the top of its 2009 list of the 100 Fastest Growing Companies in the world and RIM’s ranking at the top of the 2009 “Tech 100” list published by Canadian Business magazine illustrated RIM’s tech titan status in Canada with a market cap that was actually more than double the combined value of the other 99 publicly traded Canadian technology companies on the list. And according to a Millward Brown brand study, the BlackBerry brand value grew 390 per cent in the past year and is now worth $28 billion, ranked as the sixteenth most valuable brand in the world and tenth in North America. In just ten years, the BlackBerry brand grew from cult object to icon status and ranks higher than other household names such as Intel, Amazon, American Express, Disney and Pepsi.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Business libraries need this!,
By Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research in Motion (Hardcover)
BLACKBERRY: THE INSIDE STORY OF RESEARCH IN MOTION tells of a generation enamored by their Blackberry smartphones - and follows its history from its modest appearance in 1999 to how it became one of the most popular and famous technology gadgets in the world. Research in Motion is the company behind the BlackBerry's marketing program - and this follows its rise and the key influences of two leaders who have set business industry standards through their efforts. Business libraries need this!
1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Overall, a decent read,
By
This review is from: BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research in Motion (Hardcover)
I've always been fascinated with RIM; not sure why, it's perhaps due to a perception I have that RIM has depth, both from a technological and business standpoint. I've long stopped reading books that chronicles the rise of companies and have walked right past bookshelves that proclaim the arrival of new giants like Facebook and Twitter, but, RIM, of course, is different and I had to get it.
Now, the book is good and it starts well. It does give an 'inside story' about the company and does a fairly good job of providing an overview of the company right from pre-inception to where it stands towards the end of 2009; it covers the early business approach, the financing aspects and transitioning as a major player with the introduction of BlackBerry. However, towards the end it gets a little light and fluffy, if I may say so. I would have preferred to read more about the technological challenges RIM overcame (there are pieces here and there such as the single mail box problem, Show Low project) and a bit more about how they successfully navigated the market with all those big guys around. Personally I would have preferred the last few chapters compressed into fewer pages; for example, I mean, I wasn't really that interested in knowing all the specific charity contributions of the early team members; so instead of enumerating that it would've been better if something else had taken its place. But, in overall, it does give you a picture about how RIM became what it is today. If you are part of the Black Berry cult you might like it more since there is a lot of emphasis on the personalities. PS - Einstein's notion of God is a bit different... "I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly. If something is in me which can be called religious then it is the unbounded admiration for the structure of the world so far as our science can reveal it."..."I believe in Spinoza's God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with the fates and actions of human beings." I'm not expressing an opinion one way or the other here, but the author has tried to draw a parallel between Mike's faith and Einstein's thoughts about reality
2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Story About A Great Company,
By
This review is from: BlackBerry: The Inside Story of Research in Motion (Hardcover)
I was thoroughly impressed by this book. The story is well written, easy to read and at times hard to put down. I was completely drawn in to the story that began as a biography of Mike Lazaridis and evolved in to the story of Research in Motion.
I was impressed with how Mike Lazaridis combined his desire for pushing the boundaries of technology with the development of a successful business. You realize that Research in Motion is a company that was built from the ground up and then when it got to the point of serious lift off along comes Jim Balsillie whose introduction and effect on Research in Motion took it up to and beyond that next level. This book is not a deep dive in to what it takes to get a company up and going and then turn it in to a success but I would say it is a brilliantly written over view of what it takes to do just that. It lets you know that while Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are the main faces of the company there were also many other people whose names many may not know that were and are key components in getting Research in Motion to where it is at now. It also lets you know that Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie are doing more for Canada and the world in general then just keeping everyone connected with the BlackBerry. I definitely recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about Research in Motion or how hard work, focus and vision can build something truly successful.
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