BlackBerry's slide: From CrackBerry to 'depressing'

After CrackBerry heyday, Research In Motion has seen hard times Maker of BlackBerry reported big losses and layoffs Apple's iPhone release in 2007 helped start the decline RIM still has billions on hand and 78 million subscribers (CNN) -- Remember the CrackBerry? Five years ago, the buzzing gadget was all the rage -- the rock star of mobile communication and seemingly every office drone's high-tech status symbol. Sober-minded professionals talked about BlackBerry addiction and "phantom vibratio" that caused users to reach for the devices even when they weren't actually doing anything. "It's like Pavlov's dog," B. Marc Averitt, a technology investor, told The New York Times in 2007, referring to the gut-level longing users felt for the click-clack of the phone's keyboard and humming notice that a new personal message had arrived. Fast-forward to Thursday, and what was the word? .cnnArticleGalleryNav{border:1px solid #000;cursor:pointer;float:left;height:25px;text-align:center;width:25px} .cnnArticleGalleryNavOn{background-color:#C03;border:1px solid #000;float:left;height:25px;text-align:center;width:20px} .cnnArticleGalleryNavDisabled{background-color:#222;border:1px solid #000;color:#666;float:left;height:25px;text-align:center;width:25px} .cnnArticleExpandableTarget{background-color:#000;display:none;position:absolute} .cnnArticlePhotoContainer{height:122px;width:214px} .cnnArticleBoxImage{cursor:pointer;height:122px;padding-top:0;width:214px} .cnnArticleGalleryCaptionControl{background-color:#000;color:#FFF} .cnnArticleGalleryCaptionControlText{cursor:pointer;float:right;font-size:10px;padding:3px 10px 3px 3px} .cnnArticleGalleryPhotoContainer cite{background:none repeat scroll 0 0 #000;bottom:48px;color:#FFF;height:auto;left:420px;opacity:.7;position:absolute;width:200px;padding:10px} .cnnArticleGalleryClose{background-color:#fff;display:block;text-align:right} .cnnArticleGalleryCloseButton{cursor:pointer} .cnnArticleGalleryNavPrevNext span{background-color:#444;color:#CCC;cursor:pointer;float:left;height:23px;text-align:center;width:26px;padding:4px 0 0} .cnnArticleGalleryNavPrevNextDisabled span{background-color:#444;color:#666;float:left;height:23px;text-align:center;width:25px;padding:4px 0 0} .cnnVerticalGalleryPhoto{padding-right:68px;width:270px;margin:0 auto} .cnnGalleryContainer{float:left;clear:left;margin:0 0 20px;padding:0 0 0 10px} if (typeof cnnArticleGallery == "undefined") { var cnnArticleGallery = {}; } if(typeof cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList =="undefined"){ cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList = []; } var expGallery61=new ArticleExpandableGallery(); expGallery61.setImageCount(16); //cnn_adbptrackpgalimg("A visual history of the telephone", 1); The telephone has come a long way from the 1930s, when rotary dial models such as the one pictured here were popular, to the iPhones and BlackBerrys we carry today. Click through to see a visual history of the telephone. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":true,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":1,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Alexander Graham Bell invented the liquid transmitter circa 1876. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":2,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} This phone box in Southwark Bridge, London, features a wall-mounted phone with separate mouthpiece and receiver from 1924. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":3,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} The rotary phone in this 1930s Reading, Pennsylvania, police box could be usd to summon police, ambulance or fire services at a moment's notice. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":4,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Rotary dial telephones with separate mouthpieces and receivers are commonly reffered to as "candlestick" phones. This model from the mid-1930s features the rotary dial in the shaft of the telephone, rather than the base-dial models with which most people are familiar. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":5,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} This 1950s rotary phone features an attached mouthpiece and receiver. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":6,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Men of the English Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry call their loved ones after being told to prepare for duty in the Suez Canal Zone in 1956. Payphones were common up until the cell phones became popular and affordable. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":7,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Some of the first push-button phones are pictured here in 1971. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":8,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Franck Piccard of France talks on his mobile phone after the Mens Super G Slalom event at the 1988 Winter Olympic Games in Calgary, Alberta. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":9,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} This model of mobile phone was marketed by Racal-Vodac Limited of Newbury, Berkshire, England, in 1997, to serve dual roles as a mobile unit installed in a car or as a portable unit. The unit was sold with a battery charger and extension antenna for use in areas with poor reception. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":10,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Cell phone manufacturers made great strides between 1997 and 2004. The Palm Treo 600 smartphone, pictured here in 2004, integrated telephone with e-mail and Internet browsing capabilities. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":11,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} Motorola's MPx wireless device, released in the second half of 2004, took the smartphone to a new level with Wi-Fi capabilites and a fully functional keyboard. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":12,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} The first generation Apple iPhone, released on June 29, 2007, had people lining up for days before and after its release. It was an advancement in the world of smartphones, incorporating a touchscreen, apps, telephone, e-mail and a host of other features. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":13,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} The iPhone 4S, released on October 14, 2011, expanded on the iPhone's innovations with the addition of groundbreaking retina diplay technology and SIRI. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":14,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} The BlackBerry Bold 9930, shown here, continues a long line of BlackBerry devices so popular they have commonly been dubbed "crackberries." They are also popular smartphones for business applications because of their fully functional keyboards and advanced e-mail capabilities. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":15,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} The original Motorola Droid was the thinnest of its kind at its 2011 release. Motorola's Droid Razr Maxx, on display at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, has a longer battery life than previous models. cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList.length] = {"currentPicture":false,"x":6,"y":1,"pos":16,"title":"A visual history of the telephone"} A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone A visual history of the telephone HIDE CAPTION << < 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 > >> Photos: A visual history of the telephone Event.observe(window, 'load', function() { //report the first gallery image to ADBP if(typeof(cnn_adbptrackpgalimg) == 'function' && typeof(cnnArticleGallery) != 'undefined') { cnn_adbptrackpgalimg(cnnArticleGallery.currentImageList[0].image, ""); } }); "Depressing. That's the only word that comes to mind after reading the RIM Q1 financial results press release and listening to the conference call," Chris Umiastowski wrote for the site CrackBerry, which emerged in 2007, eight years after BlackBerry's first two-way paging device was released. "(But) as crappy as the results were, I'm not going to write up a death certificate for RIM here." He didn't. And that shows that the folks who still love their BlackBerry still really love their BlackBerry. But let's be clear: Some analysts do say it's over for the BlackBerry. "Anyone who's been paying attention isn't surprised by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion's recent collapse," a blogger for ReadWriteWeb wrote. "It's unfortunate, but it's been inevitable." BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced Thursday it is laying off 5,000 people -- and said earnings for the past three months were significantly less than expected, with the company reporting a first-quarter loss of $518 million. Sales were down 40% from last year. Furthermore, the new operating system it's pinning its hopes on will be delayed until next year, or, a full year after it was originally expected. Couple all of that with more reports that the company might be looking to sell off its once dominant service, and you had what amounted to a devastating head-kick for the Canadian company. It capped off a gut-punch of a financial year that has seen RIM's stock price drop 70%. So, what happened? As an even more gadget-obsessed society than we were five years ago, how did we stop being BlackBerry fiends. Photos: Our mobile "addiction" Well, how's this for cruel and cosmic irony? A day after the dismal report, something called the iPhone celebrated its fifth birthday. You might have heard of it. About 217 million of them have been sold. It may not have been the very first smartphone. But Apple made it sexy. And fun. And the BlackBerry, to many, would soon become the thing they give you at work. "Apple's new iPhone could do to the cell phone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market: crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority," Lev Grossman wrote for Time. "This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones, but it's good news for those of us who use them." The guy has since written a book called "The Magicians." He must have had a crystal ball. Critics say RIM was too slow to react. To be sure, it maintained (and, to some degree, still does) the hard-core business user more concerned about reliability and security than playing "Angry Birds." But for many, the thrill was gone. By the time they brought a touchscreen BlackBerry to market, the second-generation iPhone 3G was already capturing hearts and minds. And even the goal of becoming the "other smartphone" got further away when Google unleashed its Android operating system and opened it up to phone makers everywhere. The first Android phone, the HTC Dream, hit stores in October 2008, around the same time as the BlackBerry Thunder. Google's quicker response paid dividends, and now there are more phones running Android phones than there are iPhones. Ditto all of the above for the BlackBerry Playbook, RIM's entry into the tablet market that, to be kind, failed to meet sales goals. None of this, as CNNMoney notes, means your BlackBerry will be a useless brick in the near future. RIM still has 78 million subscribers and $2.2 billion in cash on hand. But as a cultural icon, it's hard to see the magic of the mid-2000s returning for the BlackBerry. It's enough to make you want to tap out a condolence note for the company -- even if many of us will be doing so on a touchscreen. 'CrackBerry,' Jelly Bean and Apple get just desserts if(typeof CNN.expElements==='object'){CNN.expElements.init();}