When introduced and through it's early years, this weeks innovation was a game changer for mobile communications.

The BlackBerry was invented by Canadian university students Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, who founded Research in Motion (RIM) in Waterloo, Ontario in 1984. The first BlackBerry device, the BlackBerry 850, was released in 1999 as a two-way pager with email capabilities. The BlackBerry's QWERTY keyboard was inspired by the small, round keys that reminded designers of the fruit. 

The BlackBerry's success was driven by its secure messaging platform, BlackBerry Messenger (BBM), which allowed users to send and receive encrypted messages. The BlackBerry became a symbol of style and status, and dominated the U.S. smartphone market for much of the 2000s.