Two Canadians Built the Phone Everyone Wanted. Then Apple Wiped Out Their Empire

Mike Lazaridis arrived in Canada by ship at five and, in 1984, walked away from his degree to found Research In Motion; in 1992, Jim Balsillie remortgaged his home to join him. This video tells the full story: the $600,000 General Motors contract; the 1999 Academy technical award; the BlackBerry 850 of January 1999; the $612.5 million NTP settlement of 2006; Steve Jobs's iPhone keynote of January 9, 2007; the founders' 2012 handover; and HMS Terror, found in 2016. It ends where the story stands now — BlackBerry's QNX software runs in more than 275 million vehicles. — SOURCES: "Mike Lazaridis" — The Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/mike-lazaridis "Jim Balsillie" — The Canadian Encyclopedia https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/article/jim-balsillie "Balsillie, Jim and Mike Lazaridis" — Encyclopedia.com (Newsmakers) https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/culture-magazines/balsillie-jim-and-mike-lazaridis "Mike Lazaridis" — Windsor Public Library https://windsorpubliclibrary.com/mike-lazaridis/ "The 71st Scientific & Technical Awards 1998 | 1999" — Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences https://oscars.org/sci-tech/ceremonies/1999 "Pager & computer (BlackBerry 850)" — Ingenium https://collections.ingeniumcanada.org/item/2013.0388.001 "History" — Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics https://perimeterinstitute.ca/History "BlackBerry Reports Fourth Quarter and Full Fiscal Year 2026 Results" — BlackBerry Limited (SEC filing) https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1070235/000107023526000029/q4fy26ex-991.htm "RIM chief chose wireless over the stars" — ITWorld Canada https://itworldcanada.com/?p=17577 "Nightmare lesson for CIOs" — Nextgov https://www.nextgov.com/people/2001/10/nightmare-lesson-for-cios/214467/ "BlackBerry maker, NTP ink $612 million settlement" — CNN Money https://money.cnn.com/2006/03/03/technology/rimm_ntp/?cnn=yes "iPhone's entrance caught BlackBerry unawares, then it was too late: WSJ" — CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2015/05/24/iphones-entrance-caught-blackberry-unawares-then-it-was-too-late-wsj.html "BlackBerry reports deep loss, revenue drop, as warned" — Business Standard (Reuters) https://www.business-standard.com/article/reuters/blackberry-reports-deep-loss-revenue-drop-as-warned-113092700731_1.html "Parks Canada confirms HMS Terror found off the coast of Nunavut" — Global News https://globalnews.ca/news/2963974/parks-canada-confirms-hms-terror-found-off-the-coast-of-nunavut/amp/ "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry" (Flatiron Books, 2015), Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff — the reported inside account of RIM's response to the iPhone