Changes: BlackBerry

Revision as of 00:12, 31 October 2016

Template:Platform BlackBerry (informally abbreviated BB) is a line of smartphones and software developed by Canada's Research in Motion (RIM) Ltd. (now BlackBerry Ltd.) dating back to the late 1990s. Originally a line of pagers for business use, RIM eventually developed BlackBerry into a business-grade platform for personal digital assistants and later smartphones that could be managed at the enterprise level. As smartphones began to rise in popularity circa 2007, RIM attempted to capitalize on the trend by releasing "consumer-friendly" devices that could play games and act as social hubs, a strategy that ultimately backfired when a number of the company's newer designs failed to gain traction with buyers over the next five years. Consequently, in 2012, the platform's popularity sharply declined, leading to an equally steep drop in support from app developers as they shifted to publishing on newer, more flexible devices. RIM later developed the BlackBerry 10 OS in an effort to catch up to more modern systems, but still never quite returned to the peak of its own success. In a partial concession, the BlackBerry 10 OS was later able to use Android apps, albeit in limited fashion due to lack of access to Google Play services. BlackBerry uses the Amazon Appstore as a distributor for Android-based software.

BlackBerry's most recent device, the Priv smartphone, is its first full Android device. It is hence able to run the entire catalog of Google Play apps and games. It is not currently known whether the company will fully replace its own platforms with Android hardware.

Only the first two Final Fantasy titles were ported to the classic BlackBerry system by Namco Bandai, who modeled them after the WonderSwan Color versions. BB10 OS phones are not backward compatible, but with their access to Amazon.com's app catalog, they are able to run the official ports of the next four titles in the series.

Final Fantasy titles on BlackBerry

Apps for BlackBerry OS 4.5-7.1 (via BlackBerry World)

Final Fantasy
Final Fantasy II

Android apps for BlackBerry 10 OS (via Amazon Appstore)

External links

BlackBerry on Wikipedia (company and history, links to hardware)
BlackBerry OS on Wikipedia
BlackBerry 10 on Wikipedia

Template:Consoles

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{Platform
 | name = BlackBerry
-| logo = [[File:BB Logo White.png]]
+| logo = [[File:Blackberry Logo.svg]]
 | image = [[File:BlackBerryBold9xxx.jpg]]
 | desc = A typical BlackBerry device, the Bold 9000 series phone