BlackBerry Success Story — Business Strategy Lessons & Crossing The Chasm

Mike Lazaridis, Co-founder, RIM — Image Source::NDTV.com

The Positioning Playbook: The Winning Strategies for Market Dominance

RIM, A Brief History

In 1984, Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin started a consulting company Research In Motion(RIM). The firm designed and developed several hardware/software products for the local wireless communication industry.

In 1989, a Canadian phone company called RAM Mobile Data contracted RIM to work on its newly acquired data network called Mobitex. Lazaridis developed mobile messaging(ran on Mobitex Network) and a wireless e-mail gateway service called RIMgate.

In the early 1990s, the company designed a portable, low-cost, and powerful Radio modem card that consumed less power. The hardware attracted several handheld device manufacturers. It was one of the revolutionary products at that time.

Venturing Into Telecommunication Consumer Market — By the mid-1990s, RAM Mobile Data was looking for wireless messaging devices it could sell to customers to boost data traffic on Mobitex Network. At that time, Paging was a booming market with nearly 40 million…