How BlackBerry went from an $85,000,000,000 company to almost bankrupt after making 'smug' mistake

Here's how BlackBerry went from an $85-billion company to near bankruptcy after making what has been described as a 'smug' mistake.

Those who were born and grew up in the early 2000s will know all about a 'BBM'. The message ping would constantly be going off during school hours, leading to some rather angry teachers.

But for those unaware, BBM, or BlackBerry Messenger, was the way the cool kids messaged each other back in the day, as literally everyone had a BlackBerry device.

However, the company has had quite the fall from grace back since then, thanks in part to the rise of Apple and Android with their mobile devices.

The OG smart phone

BlackBerry was revolutionary in so many ways. While it's common practice to send a work email from your phone nowadays, that all started with Blackberry.

BlackBerrys were hugely popular (Getty Stock Photo)

As per the Guardian, tech writer Jonathan Margolis said: "I was in New York working on a book, and I noticed everyone had these things called BlackBerrys.

"People were telling me they could send emails, and I remember thinking ‘No, you must be mistaken, you’re sending SMS text messages’. But a friend sent me an email from their phone, and I had to go home and pick it up on my PC. It was incredible."

You didn't need to be on your PC to feel connected, and while that's common in 2024, it was quite the flex for BlackBerry bosses back in the day.

At its peak in September 2011, BlackBerry had a whopping 85 million users worldwide, but that soon dropped off considerably.

BlackBerry's downfall

Come March 2016, BlackBerry's numbers had dropped to around 23 million worldwide users as the likes of iPhone, Samsung, and even Google phones thrived.

Margolis previously suggested Blackberry's successes in such a short period of time had made the company 'quite smug'.

BlackBerry's logo (Omar Marques/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

"There was a time when they thought that typing on to a flat sheet of glass wouldn’t work, but within a year the clicky-clicky BlackBerry method of typing seemed completely antiquated," the expert explained.

These days, BlackBerry as an entity is no more, with the manufacturer not having made any new phones since 2016.

In January 2022, BlackBerry's remaining users were closed off as the company shut down its servers for good.

A movie has even been made about the company's downfall, with 2023's BlackBerry exploring the phone provider's incredible growth and ultimate collapse.