BlackBerry Planet (ePub)

BlackBerry Planet is a new tribe of people who simply cannot get
along without their favorite device, Research in Motion's
innovative electronic organizer, the BlackBerry. This omnipresent
device has gone beyond being the world's foremost mobile
business tool and entered the consumer mainstream as the Swiss Army
Knife of smart phones.

BlackBerry Planet tells the behind-the-scenes story of
how this little device has become the machine that connects the
planet. Starting with the early years of Mike Lazaridis'
invention and his founding of RIM at age 23, it details his drive
to innovate, developing what was a glorified pager into the
essential corporate communicator, used by everyone from dealmakers
to the Queen, from movie stars to the entire US Congress. Since
1992, Lazaridis and co-CEO Jim Balsillie together have been the
driving force behind the RIM story.

With access to senior staffers and former RIM employees,
BlackBerry Planet tells the inside story about the branding
and marketing success of the BlackBerry, from its use during 9/11,
which earned RIM a reputation for security and reliability, to the
cultural adoption of the iconic device as a must-have symbol, to
the backlash against the addictive properties of the
"CrackBerry," and the various patent suits RIM has had
to fight off - including the five-year court battle that
resulted in the largest technology patent settlement in US
history.

As the incredible story of the BlackBerry unfolds, and as RIM
battles global giants like Nokia and Apple in the emerging
super-phone marketplace, users, fans, investors and competitors can
look to BlackBerry Planet for the insight and context of
where they've been, to try and predict where they're
going.