The+BlackBerry

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What is it?
This familiar looking object, or something from its family, is what most of us have become accustomed to seeing on friends, family, random people traveling on the subway, bus, go-train and so on. The BlackBerry is just another in the latest trends of technologies as extensions of the human body; this includes cell phones, iPods and laptops.

The Blackberry was created and launched in 1999, and now used by over 5.5 million people worldwide. The technology was designed after the booming dependence our society has shown on cell phones and the internet, integrating the two with ease. Developed by Research In Motion (RIM), the Blackberry is an innovative technology which brings communication to its users like never before. Since people are so familiar with using cell phones and computers, this device is easily to figure out and use; its usability is logical and consistent with other similar technologies, allowing it to boom within the private and business sector. The Blackberry brings to its users the same functions as a laptop computer, with a wireless Internet connection, a cell phone and an electronic date book as well.

Creation
The Blackberry was developed by [|Research in Motion] (RIM) a Canadian based company founded in Waterloo Ontario in 1984, and headed by Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, President and Chairman respectively. Both of them share the title of CEO. The Blackberry initially solved the "two mailbox problem" which was the problem of having both a corporate email account and a wireless mailbox account. It solved this by creating a unified "one mailbox" solution. The Blackberry has inevitably changed the way how people interact in the business world.

Why do we want it?
Staying "connected" to friends, family, and of course, the internet, has become an integral and important part of life, enhancing our efficiency and productivity and perhaps more importantly, our feeling of being 'in the loop.' [|Blackberry's] are able to provide people with this feeling and service by enabling easy access to email, mobile phone, SMS, organizer, contacts and web browser in a sleek, all-in-one mobile solution.

The latest BlackBerry “push” technology automatically sends email to your BlackBerry device so you don’t miss important messages. BlackBerry aims to helps simplify communications and streamline your lifestyle to allow you to do more things at one time related to business, obligations etc, and in turn give you more time to do what is important to you. Most importantly, the blackberry is in high demand as an organizational device. Users plan their day, week, month through the Blackberry. Before booking an appointment or any event, blackberry users have to check their Blackberry first.

PACT Analysis
The great thing about the BlackBerry is that it is designed for both individuals and businesses, tapping into a huge market from young to old, working to non-working **People** who all just want to be connected- whether they're in their home, car, on a plane or even in another country. Before only business people would use the BlackBerry, but now the market potential is huge because regular consumers use it too. Therefore both regular consumers and professional people have use for the BlackBerry. It is critical that the people who do interact with this device are computer savvy and it would be helpful if they have previous experience with cell phones and computers to make their interactions quicker and easier.

The BlackBerry offers various **Activities** from email, chat, online surfing, storing, SMS and of course mobile phone, give users the advantage of having a variety of services in the palm of their hands. The activities are what enable the broad range of users and do not limit certain peoples from purchasing and interacting with it.

The unlimited **Contexts** that the Blackberry can be used in since it is mobile, compact, light and easy to store along with the fact that it allows various activities to be performed- personal to professional, leaves people demanding and depending on it to perform their daily activities.

This **technology** was designed with much consideration of various people, uses, and places to be used taken into account. The PACT analysis of this technology, probably before it was designed, shows that it aims to reach and satisfy the needs of all people who are interested in staying connected- an open audience which leaves room for a huge market.

Technologies that lead to the creation of the BlackBerry

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 * Cell phones
 * The Internet
 * Palm Pilot/ PDA
 * Asynchronous communication
 * Synchronous communication
 * QWERTY keyboards
 * SMS text messaging
 * E-mail messaging

Similar Smart Phones
Though many manufacturers are creating smart phones that allow for all the functions of a handheld PC be avaliable in a phone, no one has grabed the market like RIM. The business class was the first to adopt it's usability features, but now with our tech-savy society, Blackberry is appealing to all walks of life. (business, education, personal - everyone who finds all these options as an aid to daily organization while fulfilling their multimedia needs)
 * [|Nokia E62]
 * [|HP iPAQ]
 * [|Dell Axim]
 * [|Palm Treo] (touchscreen enabled)

Images from [|www.blackberry.com] and [|www.rim.com] then altered by Mike Rybinski to corelate to the information posted