RIM timeline By LFPress Jan 1, 1984 Mike Lazaridis creates Research in Motion Jan 1, 1998 RIM listed on TSX Jan 1, 1999 BlackBerry 850 is introduced. It's a pager whose keys inspired the name. Jan 1, 2003 534,000 subscribers globally Jan 1, 2004 Subscribers top 1 million Jan 1, 2006 First Blackberry with camera. Webster’s New World College Dictionary named “crackberry” the “New Word of the Year.” Jan 1, 2007 Steve Jobs of Apple unveils the iPhone Dec 31, 2008 By year-end, iPhone sales top Blackberry sales Jan 7, 2009 Newly-elected U.S. President Barack Obama says, “I’m still clinging to my BlackBerry. They’re going to pry it out of my hands.” Oct 9, 2010 By Fall, the numbers of users in the U.S. has peaked at 21 million — it’s downhill from here. The Blackberry is passed by Google’s Android Apr 19, 2011 BlackBerry’s hoped for saviour, the PlayBook tablet, is released to slow sales and criticism Jul 9, 2011 Cut 2,000 jobs, 10-times as many as its previous biggest layoff. Workforce is reduced to 17,000. Oct 11, 2011 Blackberry's Internet service suffers a massive outage Dec 31, 2011 79 million BlackBerry users globally but only 9 million in the United States; Stock price during the year tumbled 80% Jan 22, 2012 Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie resign as CEOs Mar 29, 2012 RIM reports first net loss in years Jan 30, 2013 Company changes its name from Research In Motion to BlackBerry Jul 25, 2013 250 employees cut from research and development Sep 20, 2013 Added layoff of 4,500 employees by end of 2013, about 40 percent of the workforce. 6,750 employees will remain Sep 23, 2013 Fairfax Financial offer US$9 per share subject to conditions that could drive the price lower
