BlackBerry Limited is a Canadian cybersecurity company specializing in enterprise critical event management solutions, endpoint protection, and securing the Internet of things by using artificial intelligence and machine learning against cyberthreats. Originally known as Research In Motion (RIM), it developed the BlackBerry brand of interactive pagers, smartphones, and tablets. It transitioned to a cybersecurity enterprise software and services company under Chief Executive Officer John S. Chen. Its products are used by various businesses, car manufacturers, and government agencies to prevent hacking and ransomware attacks. They include BlackBerry Cylance's artificial intelligence based cyber-security solutions, the BlackBerry AtHoc emergency communication system (ECS) platform; the QNX real-time operating system; and BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BlackBerry Unified Endpoint Manager), a Unified Endpoint Management (UEM) platform.
BlackBerry was founded in 1984 as Research In Motion by Mike Lazaridis and Douglas Fregin. In 1992, Lazaridis hired Jim Balsillie, and Lazaridis and Balsillie served as co-CEOs until January 22, 2012, when Thorsten Heins became president and CEO. In November 2013, John S. Chen took over as CEO. His initial strategy was to subcontract manufacturing to Foxconn, and to focus on software technology. Currently, his strategy includes forming licensing partnerships with device manufacturers such as TCL Communication and unifying BlackBerry's software portfolio. In 2020, BlackBerry signed a new licensing agreement for smartphones with the US-based startup company, OnwardMobility. According to the press release a new 5G BlackBerry smartphone will be released in 2021.