BlackBerry's boss saw the iPhone in 2007. He said, 'We'll be fine.'
In January 2007, BlackBerry made the phone that carried company email. By March it had more than 8 million subscribers, and more than 100,000 BlackBerry email servers had been deployed around the world.
Co-founder Mike Lazaridis watched Steve Jobs unveil the iPhone and showed the webcast to his co-CEO, Jim Balsillie. According to the book Losing the Signal, Lazaridis said, "These guys are really, really good. This is different." Balsillie answered, "It's OK. We'll be fine."
For four years, sales kept growing. BlackBerry shipped a record 52.3 million phones in fiscal 2011, on $19.9 billion of revenue. In January 2012 the founders handed over the CEO job. In September 2016 BlackBerry stopped designing its own phones. In fiscal 2026, as a software company, its revenue was $549.1 million.
BlackBerry's maker, Research In Motion, said in its 2007 annual filing that those servers made it hard for any newcomer to get in. If a vendor counts on the servers you already run to keep rivals out, what happens when your users bring a different device?
AI-generated illustration with narration by an AI voice.
What the captions say
- This is the story of how BlackBerry, the phone of business, met the iPhone in 2007, and its boss said they'd be fine.
- That boss was co-chief Jim Balsillie. His BlackBerry carried secure company email, and by March 2007, it had more than 8 million subscribers.
- In January 2007, according to the book Losing the Signal, co-founder Mike Lazaridis was on a treadmill at home, watching the news.
- Steve Jobs was on stage holding a glass phone that played music, video and maps.
- Lazaridis forgot his workout. At the office, he showed Balsillie the webcast.
- Balsillie noticed the full web browser. He said the phone networks weren't letting BlackBerry put one on its phones.
- Lazaridis said, "These guys are really, really good. This is different."
- Balsillie gave his answer. "It's OK. We'll be fine."
- For a while, they were. In fiscal 2011, it shipped a record 52.3 million phones.
- Five years after that webcast, the founders stepped aside. In January 2012, they handed the top job to a new chief executive.
- By late 2015, its market share was 0.2%. In September 2016, BlackBerry stopped designing its own phones.
- In April 2026, BlackBerry reported a year's revenue of $549.1 million. In 2011, it reported $19.9 billion.
- By April 2026, BlackBerry was a software company. Its car software was embedded in more than 275 million vehicles.
