If you caught the movie “BlackBerry” last May, you saw how Canada’s Research In Motion took its BlackBerry two-way pager and made it the must-have tool for the pinstriped suit set. And soon BlackBerry moved into smartphones and added features like BBM that kept users addicted to their phones. The film was based on the outstanding book “Losing the Signal” which is a fascinating read for phone enthusiasts no matter which platform you favor. If you didn’t catch the film, or if you did and thoroughly enjoyed it, you have another chance to view it but this time as a streamed series. As part of the deal that helped fund the production of the movie, the film was going to be turned into a series for streaming platforms which is why BlackBerry works so well as a three-part series with multiple episodes lasting 45 minutes each. There are about 14 minutes of material added to the series that wasn’t shown on movie screens.

Dan McDermott, president of entertainment and AMC Studios for AMC Networks said, “We are thrilled to bring BlackBerry to AMC and AMC+ in the form of this three-part limited series for television, featuring extended scenes and new footage sure to delight the fans of this lively and frequently hilarious true-life drama. This is a truly entertaining story with great performances, whether you are old enough to have owned one of these once ubiquitous devices or not.” If you are a long-time PhoneArena reader, you know how BlackBerry went from the top to the bottom. It all started with the introduction and launch of the iPhone in 2007 which made physical keyboards unnecessary, old, and dated. You might want to check out the real-life responses to the iPhone that were uttered by RIM co-CEOs Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie to understand why BlackBerry could never catch either iOS or Android. Eventually, BlackBerry felt compelled to drop its own OS and switch to Android so that it could benefit from the fully stocked Google Play Store. But there were too many mistakes made along the way. For example, how could BlackBerry, known for the email capabilities of its devices, launch its PlayBook tablet without an email client? Users at first needed to use a BlackBerry smartphone to see their email, contacts, calendar, and BBM!