But when Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007, another smartphone was the must-have gadget.
It was the BlackBerry, a device so addictive that it became known as the "CrackBerry" among tech nerds and power brokers hunched over a tiny keyboard that was best operated with both thumbs clickety-clacking.
Now the BlackBerry is "that phone people had before they bought an iPhone," a relic so irrelevant that the Canadian company that made it is now valued at $3 billion - down from $85 billion at its 2008 peak when it still controlled nearly half of the smartphone market.
But its legacy is worth remembering - and audiences will get a chance to learn more about its origins in the new film, "BlackBerry." The film out last weekend in theaters is the latest movie or TV series to delve into technology's penchant for groundbreaking innovation, blind ambition, ego clashes and power struggles that turn into morality tales.
That formula has already spawned two Academy Award-nominated movies written by Aaron Sorkin, 2010's "The Social Network" delving into Facebook's founding and 2015's "Steve Jobs," dissecting the Silicon Valley icon. Then came last year's flurry of TV series examining the scandals enveloping WeWork ("WeCrashed"), Uber ("Super Pumped") and disgraced Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes ("The Dropout"), which won
Amanda Seyfried an Emmy for her turn in the starring role.
Unlike any of those biopics, "BlackBerry" is told as a dark comedy revolving around two amiable but bumbling nerds, Mike Lazaridis and Doug Fregin, who can't seem to execute their plan to create a "computer in a phone" until they bring in a hard-nosed, foul-mouthed businessman, Jim Balsillie.
This story is from the AppleMagazine #602 edition of AppleMagazine.
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This story is from the AppleMagazine #602 edition of AppleMagazine.
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