Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Other players in the antivirus market include AVG, Norton, Trend Micro,
McAfee, Kaspersky, and many more. There is a hot race between the virus produ-
cers and the antivirus defenders.
Note
Avira's CEO, Tjark Auerbach, supports a number of charities and
nonprofit art groups through his Auerbach Foundation. Quite a few
software executives have a strong interest in social and charitable
issues. Others include Bill Gates of Microsoft and Tony Salvaggio
of CAI. Given the accumulated wealth of the software industry, its
social and charitable impact has become significant.
BlackBerry (Research in Motion, or RIM)
The BlackBerry product is a pioneering smartphone. The company itself was foun-
ded in Waterloo, Ontario, in 1984 by Mike Lazaridis. Apparently, he named the
company Research in Motion (RIM) because he liked the phrase “poetry in mo-
tion.” The name “BlackBerry” is due to a slight resemblance of a computer key-
board to the surface of the actual blackberry fruit.
Some state governments provide seed money for software companies. The Ca-
nadian government played a significant role in funding the RIM startup. In the Un-
ited States, venture capitalists provide all the seed money rather than the federal
government. Private investors also provided initial funds for RIM.
The first product from RIM in 1998 was a paging device that competed with
Motorola. The first BlackBerry smartphone came out in April 2000. For several
years, the BlackBerry smartphones did well and their sales, customers, and reven-
ues climbed quickly. Having a BlackBerry was a status symbol among both exec-
utives and technical geeks.
However, in 2007, the Apple iPhone arrived on the market and the RIM busi-
ness prognosis took a turn for the worse. The BlackBerry Storm model came out
in 2008 with a touchscreen, but it suffered from poor reviews and dissatisfied cus-
tomers.
The proprietary BlackBerry operating system, QNX, also suffered from com-
petition with Android. In its first year on the market, Android pulled ahead of
BlackBerry in U.S. customers. Indeed, BlackBerry had a net decline in U.S. cus-
tomers due to Android competition.
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