Blackberry 850 Introduction Location Munich Germany Updated -

The BlackBerry 850 was the antithesis of a beer festival. It was the device that ended the weekend. It was the invention that meant you could never truly "clock out."

Munich gave the world lederhosen, pretzels, and the BMW. But it also gave us the BlackBerry. And for that, your aching thumbs should probably send a silent thank you to Bavaria. blackberry 850 introduction location munich germany

Here was a device designed for efficiency and getting things done . Yet, it was launched in a city famous for two things: Gemütlichkeit (the deliberate state of relaxation) and Oktoberfest . The BlackBerry 850 was the antithesis of a beer festival

The press release, dated August 30, 1999, is a charming fossil of the era. It touted the device as a "wireless handheld that offers easy access to corporate data." The killer feature? Two-way paging. But it also gave us the BlackBerry

RIM knew their device—running on the Mobitex network—needed a sophisticated, dense, tech-hungry audience to beta test the "push email" concept. They chose Munich, the Stadt der Geister (City of Minds), home to Siemens, BMW, and a dense corridor of tech startups. The launch event was famously understated. Unlike the Steve Jobs-style theatrical reveals of later years, the BlackBerry 850’s debut was held in a rented conference room near the Munich Residenz.

If you had been sipping a weissbier in the English Garden on a crisp autumn day 25 years ago, you might have witnessed a peculiar sight: sharply dressed businesspeople staring intently at a tiny green screen, their thumbs moving faster than a Bavarian accordion player’s fingers.

While the world credits Waterloo, Ontario, as the home of BlackBerry, the genesis of the always-on, thumb-typing revolution didn’t happen in Canada. It happened in the heart of Bavaria, with the introduction of the . The "Interim" Device That Changed Everything By 1999, Research In Motion (RIM) had already dabbled in pagers. But the 850 was different. It wasn't a phone. It wasn't really an email machine yet. It was a wireless handheld device that looked like a bar of soap that had swallowed a tiny QWERTY keyboard.

The BlackBerry 850 was the antithesis of a beer festival. It was the device that ended the weekend. It was the invention that meant you could never truly "clock out."

Munich gave the world lederhosen, pretzels, and the BMW. But it also gave us the BlackBerry. And for that, your aching thumbs should probably send a silent thank you to Bavaria.

Here was a device designed for efficiency and getting things done . Yet, it was launched in a city famous for two things: Gemütlichkeit (the deliberate state of relaxation) and Oktoberfest .

The press release, dated August 30, 1999, is a charming fossil of the era. It touted the device as a "wireless handheld that offers easy access to corporate data." The killer feature? Two-way paging.

RIM knew their device—running on the Mobitex network—needed a sophisticated, dense, tech-hungry audience to beta test the "push email" concept. They chose Munich, the Stadt der Geister (City of Minds), home to Siemens, BMW, and a dense corridor of tech startups. The launch event was famously understated. Unlike the Steve Jobs-style theatrical reveals of later years, the BlackBerry 850’s debut was held in a rented conference room near the Munich Residenz.

If you had been sipping a weissbier in the English Garden on a crisp autumn day 25 years ago, you might have witnessed a peculiar sight: sharply dressed businesspeople staring intently at a tiny green screen, their thumbs moving faster than a Bavarian accordion player’s fingers.

While the world credits Waterloo, Ontario, as the home of BlackBerry, the genesis of the always-on, thumb-typing revolution didn’t happen in Canada. It happened in the heart of Bavaria, with the introduction of the . The "Interim" Device That Changed Everything By 1999, Research In Motion (RIM) had already dabbled in pagers. But the 850 was different. It wasn't a phone. It wasn't really an email machine yet. It was a wireless handheld device that looked like a bar of soap that had swallowed a tiny QWERTY keyboard.