With everybody talking about it these days, you may find yourself wonder exactly what is BlackBerry technology? What is it about the BlackBerry that makes it so popular with corporations and organizations? What is it about BlackBerry that makes it different from all the other smartphones out there?
Who Is Research in Motion?
While most people are familiar with the BlackBerry brand of smartphones by now, many people are not quite as familiar with the company behind the brand. BlackBerry is the name of the device, but Research in Motion is the company that actually builds, markets, and supports the popular handheld. Research in Motion is a Canadian firm based out of Waterloo, Ontario and its focus from the beginning has been on the corporate market.
The first BlackBerry devices, as you can probably imagine, were nowhere near as advanced as what you are able to use today. The sole purpose of early BlackBerry handhelds was to provide business professionals with the ability to check their corporate email accounts wherever they may be. This was a quantum leap ahead of the basic pagers that people were still using during that time. That was different enough, but BlackBerry brought something even more. And this is where we can find the real answer to the question: "What is BlackBerry technology?"
What Is BlackBerry Technology?
Whether you are looking at a basic BlackBerry Pearl or you are considering the decidedly higher end BlackBerry Bold, all of these smartphones run on fundamentally the same technology. The operating system is certainly unique compared to Windows Mobile smartphones or the Apple iPhone, but the main thing that makes these devices so different from the competition has little to do with the device itself.
Instead, when you ask what is BlackBerry technology, the most important aspect is the BlackBerry service offered by Research in Motion. This service is essentially the same whether you are using it through AT&T, Telus Mobility, or Verizon Wireless.
BlackBerry technology takes on two interrelated forms: BlackBerry Internet Service and BlackBerry Enterprise Server.
BlackBerry Internet Service
Assuming that you sign up for a BlackBerry data plan with your chosen wireless carrier, you will gain access to the BlackBerry Internet Service. Also known as BIS for short, this service allows BlackBerry devices to use a variety of BlackBerry-specific services. The BlackBerry Messenger is a popular instant messenger (IM) application that connects all BlackBerry users together. This IM service can be used not only for text conversations, but also for sound clips and multimedia sharing.
One of the more notable features of BlackBerry Internet Service is data compression. Any time that you access the mobile web on your BlackBerry device, that data is pushed through the BIS server for data compression. This helps to speed up the user experience substantially, because each requested file is typically compressed at an approximate ratio of 5:1 or 6:1. In other words, a 600MB download becomes a 100MB download. That saves you money and time.
BlackBerry Enterprise Server
When it comes to asking what is BlackBerry technology, business people are easily the most interested in the BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES). This is what they are discussing when they talk about a BlackBerry outage. The great thing about BES is that it provides a real-time "push" synchronization for email messages, contact lists, and corporate calendars. This way, if a secretary at the office adds an appointment to your calendar from her computer, this information is made immediately available on your handheld.
Not Just for Business Folks Anymore
While BES is much more oriented toward the enterprise market, other BlackBerry features are quickly making the line of smartphones remarkably popular among the general public as well. This has been expanded even further with some great BlackBerry application downloads, like ones for Twitter, weather, news, and more.
Now that you know about BlackBerry technology, you want one, don't you?
