WATERLOO — There was a moment during the pomp and circumstance of his second inauguration earlier this week when U.S. President Barack Obama was pictured pulling out what appeared to be his specially secured BlackBerry smartphone to check his messages.
While President Obama may be the most famous BlackBerry user in the world, the image was a stark reminder of how Research In Motion Ltd.’s iconic smartphones have become a staple of the halls of power in Washington, on Wall Street and in corporations around the world.
Indeed, there are still many who immediately associate RIM’s BlackBerry devices with the worlds of business and government, and those corporate users factor heavily into the long term survival of Canada’s most famous technology company.