A blast from the past: The RIM 950
by The PocketBerry Team
How long ago did you start using BlackBerry? Many don’t realize how long RIM has been around and most of you never even knew about some earlier devices from the past. A lot of us grew using the trackwheel, while others may have seen the trackball or trackpad in their first BlackBerry. Furthermore, others have had touch screen technology from RIM. Personally my first BlackBerry rocked a trackwheel but I was barely using it given that it was issued for work purposes at the time.
The device seen above is the RIM 950, which was not such a common device. This device is before the BlackBerry was even called one and the devices just got three digit numbers. So the RIM 950 wasn’t everyone’s average BlackBerry. Who got them? High political figures such as the senators and other government officials were rockin’ the RIM devices out, but they still weren’t that common.
Not satisfied with the 64MB+ equipped on your BlackBerry? The RIM 950 get a nice 4 MB of internal memory. MicroSD card slot? Negative, the technology wasn’t even available yet. In fact, phone calls weren’t even possible on it. The RIM 950 was strictly a data device for sending and receiving emails.
Look at the RIM 950 as a pager almost, just a bit more souped up. Charging the device consisted of you purchasing AA batteries or getting a rechargeable AA battery. Today we are graced with rechargeable batteries included along with a wall charger.
There were two devices in this generation, both the RIM 850 and 950 which varied in processor speed. The 850 stayed at 800MHz DataTAC while the 950 went along to 900MHz via Mobitex. Later on, we saw RIM devices slowly evolve into what we know as the BlackBerry today. Screens were enlarged, trackwheels went to the side of the device, the keyboard buttons were set directly under the keyboard, and the whole “candy bar” shape started to take in effect.
What was your first BlackBerry?
-by Mac Jadalhack
