Topics
Granted, it's a small part but when speaking of Twitters early days Twitter founder, Jack Dorsey credits the use of his then RIM 850 as a tool that helped spark status updates across the World.
We'd like to pretend we are surprised at this news but really -- we're not. People tend to forget that RIM was one of the first companies to make use of mobile data. The RIM 850 provided e-mail and WAP services, with limited HTML all across what was then basically a 1G network, called Mobitex. The inter@active pager was in the hands of approximately 400,000 users in 1997 then blew up to 51 million users by 2002."I had a RIM pager, the 850, the first email device. I programed a system where I could fire off an email from that and set my status from anywhere. And it worked! And I was able to also at a regular interval pull my buddy list and get those updates sent to my email address. It was awesome! But the number of people who had those mobile devices was so minimal that the timing was just not right. This was 2001."
13.102.764 Readers per month
Copyright © 2013 Mobile Nations • Terms and Conditions • Privacy Policy
CrackBerry is in no way Affiliated with BlackBerry. We take pride in our unbiased content, however do occasionally receive free products from vendors that we review or discuss. For more info click here.
brando0623 May 17, 2011 at 5:14 pm
And ten years later twitter is now a social networking phenom. Congrats RIM on the assist
teedeee May 18, 2011 at 7:37 am
good
sirpedro83 May 17, 2011 at 5:16 pm
That's pretty cool to know. Jack just dunked that
FoxxBerry May 17, 2011 at 5:21 pm
You know what I would probably still use that 850 in addition to my current, but only for twitter. Something about that size i would find a use for.
mkye86 May 17, 2011 at 6:34 pm
RIM and Twitter should totally team up to make a Twitter Device. LOL it would be small and compact like the 850 but you can only use it to tweet.. :)
adam917 May 17, 2011 at 6:49 pm
...and SMS.
mkye86 May 17, 2011 at 6:54 pm
Well it would have to have a simplified version of BBM as well. Or it would be a RIM product. :)
LegenJERRY May 17, 2011 at 5:31 pm
Then they should play a part in making a twitter app for my play book; juss sayin.
Bla1ze May 17, 2011 at 5:33 pm
They're trying.. more so then you know...and more so then I can fully comment on.
BBprodigy May 17, 2011 at 5:45 pm
well at least thats encouraging....
LegenJERRY May 17, 2011 at 5:58 pm
Very much so!
BaconMunch May 17, 2011 at 6:39 pm
orly? nice :)
jinxednuance May 17, 2011 at 5:38 pm
umm that phone looks sexy. is it for sale by chance?
doug1010 May 17, 2011 at 11:26 pm
i'm pretty sure you could not make phone calls with it back then :)
jackmikepena May 17, 2011 at 6:12 pm
Yeah... Where can I get one of those RIM 850s' Bla1ze? Lol!
Bla1ze May 17, 2011 at 7:28 pm
eBay, surprisngly has a few.
AbuYazeedUK May 17, 2011 at 6:24 pm
Technology is amazing
BaconMunch May 17, 2011 at 6:38 pm
Gosh just look at that keyboard, it's still better than half the keyboard you can find on devices today, touch or not!
jinxednuance May 17, 2011 at 6:45 pm
and that is why I will never trade my BlackBerry for any device on this lovely planet!
JHL78 May 17, 2011 at 8:27 pm
BlackBerry is the BEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
offthahorseceo May 17, 2011 at 7:24 pm
SO? Al Gore invented the internet...top THAT
doug1010 May 17, 2011 at 11:24 pm
I remember when I was at U of waterloo, a friend had an even older device. It looked like a pager with a screen taped to it :) hehe. I remember thinking "wow that is so cool, you can send email to each other with that??"
I remember him saying "ya, we've got a newer version coming out soon"
Binkles May 18, 2011 at 3:22 am
A nice story, but wrong on the details. In 1997, the 850 had not yet been released. It came out *after* the 950, which was released in August 1998. As well, the 8xx series ran on the DataTAC network, while the 9xx models ran on Mobitex.
The model that was available in 1997 was the RIM 900, aka "the clamshell".
http://www.berryreview.com/2009/02/12/the-history-of-rim-the-blackberry-...
From someone who worked at RIM at the time,
B.
zensen May 18, 2011 at 7:43 am
Horrible
ewilsonn May 18, 2011 at 9:33 am
What is this nonsense? The device didn't exist at that time and the story doesn't make any sense yet all these BB fanboys start screaming about how great the golden days of RIM were... more than 10 years ago. If only they were as relevant today...
Binkles May 18, 2011 at 11:20 am
Just to be clear, the 850 *did* exist in 2001, which is what the original Gizmodo article was asserting. The details added by CB are somewhat incorrect, though.
Gamesdmc3 May 19, 2011 at 6:58 pm
Nice lil Rim history lesson
msoghaier Jan 26, 2012 at 11:43 am
Hmmm. I still have one. Loved that keyboard. Was the Jeep Wrangler of mobile devices. Any chance there are any service providers still activating the 850s ???