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Rim Corp history
Rim Corp company history timeline
Research In Motion Limited was founded in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin.
Romulus, Michigan: Kelsey-Hayes Company, 1984.
RIM became interested in the long-term potential of digital wireless devices after it received a contract in 1987 from Rogers Cantel Mobile Communications, Inc., a paging and cellular telephone operator that was a subsidiary of Rogers Communications Inc.
1988: RIM begins working on wireless data-only applications.
By 1991 RIM was developing software to support a complete wireless e-mail system.
In January 1992 Ericsson introduced its first portable radio modem, which was designed for Hewlett-Packard Co.'s palmtop computer.
RIM has had the same co-CEOs since 1992.
Realizing that he was better at engineering than corporate finance, Lazardis hired James Balsillie in 1992 to handle the company's finances and business development.
RIM’s early development was financed by Canadian institutional and venture capital investors in 1995 through a private placement in the privately held company.
In 1995 RIM released version 2.5 of the SDK, which was called RAD I/O Connectivity Tools.
In 1996 RIM released a PCMIA plug-in card for computers that enabled wireless e-mail.
Released commercially in 1997, the Inter@ctive pager quickly became RIM's best-known product.
A total of C$30,000,000 in pre-IPO financing was raised by the company prior to its initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange in January 1998 under the symbol RIM.
Pivotal in this development was the release of the Inter@ctive Pager 950, which started shipping in August 1998.
"Bad Brakes," [cited April 14, 1999] available via the World Wide Web @ www.kwtv.com/investigators/brakes.htm/.
"Image Program for Kelsey-Hayes," [cited April 14, 1999] available via the World Wide Web @ www.franco.com/kelsey.html/.
For 1999, RIM's revenue more than doubled to US$47.5 million.
In April 2000 the company received a C$34 million investment from the Canadian government under its Technology Partnerships Canada (TPC) program.
By mid-2000 RIM's BlackBerry service was hosted by numerous ISPs.
Other competitors included Motorola and OmniSky, and in the second half of 2000 Handspring Inc., a new company formed by Palm founder Jeff Hawkins.
For 2001, RIM's revenue more than doubled to US$221.3 million.
RIM's new BlackBerry with phone service and always-on e-mail connectivity was introduced in March 2002.
In July 2002 InfoWorld magazine announced the results of its Readers' Choice Awards.
In November 2002 the company announced it would lay off about 10 percent of its workforce.
Expanding Options, Entering New Markets: 2002-03
RIM's expansion into European markets proceeded in 2002.
In February 2003 RIM introduced a new, low-cost 6200 BlackBerry series that was designed to sell for about C$200.
In early 2003 the United States Patent and Trademark Office announced it would review the decision in NTP, Inc. vs.
The arrival of the first Apple iPhone in 2007 caused much fanfare and speculation that the BlackBerry might have its first serious competition.
In October 2008, Apple briefly passed RIM in quarterly sales when they announced they had sold 6.9 million iPhones to the 6.1 million sold by RIM, comparing partially overlapping quarters between the companies.
In the United States, the BlackBerry user base peaked at approximately 21 million users in the fall of 2010.
BlackBerry then began to decline in use in the United States, with Apple’s installed base in the United States finally passing BlackBerry in April 2011.
Slowing growth prompted the company to undertake a lay-off of 2,000 employees in the summer of 2011.
On January 22, 2012, Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resigned as the CEOs of the company, handing the reins over to executive Thorsten Heins.
On March 29, 2012, the company reported its first net loss in years.
As of December 1, 2012, the company had 79 million BlackBerry users globally with only 9 million remaining in the United States.
After much criticism and numerous delays, RIM officially launched BlackBerry 10 and two new smartphones based off the platform, the BlackBerry Z10 and Q10, on January 30, 2013.
On September 20, 2013, the company announced it would lay off 4,500 staff, and take a CAD$1 billion operating loss.Three days later, the company announced that it had signed a letter of Intent to be acquired by a Consortium led by Prem Watsa owned Fairfax Financial Holdings for a $9 per share deal.
However the company would remain open to alternative offers till November 4, 2013.
In June 2014, CNN released an article citing BlackBerry as one of six endangered US brands.
"Kelsey-Hayes ." Gale Encyclopedia of United States Economic History. . Retrieved April 15, 2021 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/kelsey-hayes
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Rim Corp may also be known as or be related to Rim Corp, Rim Corporation and The Rim Corporation.