Blackberry 850 Introduction Date Munich Germany Direct

The BlackBerry 850 was introduced on February 6, 2001 , at an event in Munich, Germany .

This is a very specific query, but it touches on a forgotten piece of tech history. Here is the story behind the and its connection to Munich, Germany.

Why does this matter to someone searching "Munich Germany"? Because at that event, RIM announced Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile Germany) as their exclusive launch partner. For several months, you could only buy a BlackBerry 850 from T-Mobile shops in Munich, Frankfurt, and Berlin. Bavarian bankers, BMW executives, and Siemens project managers were among the first Europeans to carry a "CrackBerry."

In the late 1990s, Research In Motion (RIM) had a device called the Inter@ctive Pager 950. It was email-only, monochrome, and used a scroll wheel. By 2000, RIM realized that to conquer the European market, they needed a device that worked on (the global standard) rather than North America’s Mobitex network.