For some reason RIM gets little but hate around this place (maybe because it doesn't make products for hackers and it competes with Apple), but I think their st

For some reason RIM gets little but hate around this place (maybe because it doesn't make products for hackers and it competes with Apple), but I think their story is actually quite inspiring. Mike Lizaridis quit engineering school a early to found RIM in 1984 in a tech backwater. He struggled for a decade, but slowly built up the company over a decade to around 100 people. They then hit a rough patch and had a tough round of layoffs, but survived. 15 years after they were founded, they hit upon both a brilliant idea and execution. When the BlackBerry was released in 1999, RIM had around 120 people and sold 25000 of the units. Over the last decade, they have managed to fend off all big tech companies while growing into a global brand a major tech company. Meanwhile, Mike L has funded one of the coolest charities around (Perimeter Institute) and RIM has turned Waterloo into a major tech center. So, to answer your glib question: many times between 84 and 99, once around 2003 (replacing an old OS) and right now (with the move to QNX and webos-like SDK).