Research in Motion Success Story
Blackberry Maker is the World’s Fastest Growing Company
Aug 19, 2009
In 1984, Research in Motion (RIM) was founded by University of Waterloo engineering student Mike Lazaridis and University of Windsor engineering student Douglas Fregin. They set up shop in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
Alastair Sweeny is the author of an upcoming book on the history of RIM – “BlackBerry Planet: The Story of Research in Motion and the Little Device that Took the World by Storm.” In an interview with Forbes Magazine (August 18, 2009) Sweeny recounts that, “Like any high-tech company, there are a lot of stories about subsisting on Coke and pizza, writing code for 36 hours straight…After college, Lazaridis bounced from one contract to another, assembled a team and discovered a way to do two-way paging. When operators brought in Internet mail, RIM was ready.”
First BlackBerry Marketed in 1999
RIM introduced the “BlackBerry wireless email solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Server Software for Microsoft Exchange” in 1999.
Innovations to the new device came thick and fast, while the marketing focussed entirely on the corporate sector. The BlackBerry was very popular and users found they became almost addicted to it; so much so, that it has been called the “CrackBerry”.
Spectacular Growth of Research in Motion
Originally located beside the campus of the University of Waterloo, RIM has taken over dozens of former factories and showrooms nearby during its rapid expansion. The company now has operations across North America and is growing quickly in Europe and Asia. RIM will have about 12,000 employees by the end of 2009.
By expanding into the highly competitive consumer market, RIM has more than held its own against other smart phone providers. The subscriber base is currently 28.5 million with the addition of 3.8 million new subscribers in the most recent quarter alone.
RIM termed World’s Fastest Growing Company
On August 17, 2009, Fortune Magazine named Research in Motion the world’s fastest-growing company. Reporting for Canadian Press (August 18, 2009) Kristine Owram wrote that RIM is “expected to see three-year average earnings per share growth of 84 percent and revenue growth of 77 percent.” RIM has 56 percent of the American smart-phone market with is reckoned to be worth $12-billion (U.S.) a year.
According to its latest quarterly report RIM earned $643 million (U.S.) compared with $482.5 million (U.S.) a year earlier. Revenues rose 53 percent to $3.42 billion.
Canadian Press quotes Veritas Investment Research Corp. analyst Neeraj Monga as saying “The increasing adoption of 3G networks worldwide, increasing adoption of Internet worldwide, consumers’ ease of use, and need to get data on the go” have combined to create soaring demand for RIM’s products.
What’s next for BlackBerry Maker?
Alastair Sweeny says that RIM is not resting on its laurels and is working on developing a so-called “telebrain.” He says the company is trying to find ways of combining quantum physics with mobile devices. “Experts say the future,” Sweeny told Forbes, “will bring many radios on a single chip, mobile storage as big as the human brain, high-definition mobile video, and wireless spectrum galore.”
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