BlackBerry Jam

摘要

For its first 15 years research in Motion was a Canadian pager outfit almost unknown south of the border. Then came the BlackBerry, in 1998. The handheld e-mailing computer quickly became the must-have gadget for executives, consultants and everyone on Wall Street. Users got hooked, dubbing it the CrackBerry. "There aren't a lot of times in the day when I'm not on it. My ex-girlfriends asked for BlackBerry-free evenings and weekends," says Jeffrey Kimbell, a 34-year-old health care lobbyist. RIM has sold more than 2 million BlackBerrys, and they now handle half of all wireless business e-mails. RIM's annual revenue should surpass $1.3 billion when it's announced in April, making the Black-Berry as big a phenomenon as Apple's iPod. Such wild success has made the shares of Chairman James Balsillie worth $780 million. (Cofounder Michael Lazaridis' stake is worth $800 million.) But Balsillie is all humility when asked his aspirations for the future. "We are really a niche device player," he says. "We're not trying to win any big battle."