The BlackBerry is a line of wireless handheld devices and services designed and marketed by Research In Motion Limited (RIM) operating as BlackBerry. The first BlackBerry device, an email pager, was released in 1999; the most recent BlackBerry devices, the Z10 and Q10, were announced on January 30, 2013. The user interface varies by model; most feature a physical QWERTY keyboard, while newer generations have relied on a multi-touch screen and virtual keyboard. A BlackBerry can shoot video, take photos, play music, and perform online functions such as web-browsing and emailing. They can also send and receive push email and instant messages while maintaining a high level of security through on-device message encryption, and are designed to function as personal digital assistants. BlackBerry devices support a large variety of instant messaging features, with the most popular being the proprietary BlackBerry Messenger service. The BlackBerry PlayBook is a tablet computer offered by the company. The 100 millionth BlackBerry smartphone was shipped in June quarter of 2010[3] and the 200 millionth smartphone was shipped in September quarter of 2012. BlackBerry accounts for 3% of mobile device sales worldwide in 2011, making its manufacturer the sixth most popular device maker (25% of mobile device sales are smartphones).[4] The consumer BlackBerry Internet Service is available in 91 countries worldwide on over 500 mobile service operators using various mobile technologies. As of September 2012, there were eighty million subscribers worldwide to BlackBerry. In 2011 the Caribbean and Latin America had the highest penetrations of BlackBerry smartphones worldwide, with up to about 45 per cent in the region having a RIM device.[8] BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone are considered the four major smartphone brands. BlackBerry is widely referred to as "CrackBerry" in the United States, which alludes to its excessive use by its owners and is a reference to the addictiveness of crack cocaine. Use of the term CrackBerry became so widespread that in November 2006 Webster's New World College Dictionary named "crackberry" the "New Word of the Year." Hardware [edit] Modern LTE based handhelds such as the BlackBerry Z10 have a Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Plus 1.5 GHz Dual-Core CPU and an Adreno 225 1.5-1.7 GHz GPU. GSM-based BlackBerry handhelds incorporate an ARM 7, 9 or 11 processor.[10] Some of the BlackBerry models (Torch 9850/9860, Torch 9810, and Bold 9900/9930) have a 1.2 GHz MSM8655 Snapdragon processor, 768 MB system memory, and 8 GB of on-board storage. Entry-level models, such as the Curve 9360, feature a Marvell PXA940 clocked at 800 MHz. Some previous BlackBerry devices, such as the Bold 9000, were equipped with XScale 624 MHz processors. The Bold 9700 featured a newer version of the Bold 9000's processor but is clocked at the same speed. The Curve 8520 featured a 512 MHz processor, while BlackBerry 8000 series smartphones, such as the 8700 and the Pearl, are based on the 312 MHz ARM XScale ARMv5TE PXA900. An exception to this is the BlackBerry 8707 which is based on the 80 MHz Qualcomm 3250 chipset; this was due to the PXA900 chipset not supporting 3G networks. The 80 MHz processor in the BlackBerry 8707 meant the device was often slower to download and render web pages over 3G than the 8700 was over EDGE networks. Early BlackBerry devices, such as the BlackBerry 950, used Intel 80386-based processors. Software [edit] A new operating system, BlackBerry 10, was released for two new BlackBerry models (Z10 and Q10) on January 30, 2013. At BlackBerry World 2012, RIM CEO Thorsten Heins demonstrated some of the new features of the OS, including a camera which is able to rewind frame-by-frame to allow selection of the best shot, an intelligent, predictive, and adapting keyboard, and a user interface designed around the idea of "flow". Apps are available for BlackBerry 10 devices through the BlackBerry World storefront. Further information: BlackBerry 10 The previous operating system developed for older BlackBerry devices was BlackBerry OS which is a proprietary multitasking environment developed by RIM. The operating system is designed for use of input devices such as the track wheel, track ball, and track pad. The OS provides support for Java MIDP 1.0 and WAP 1.2. Previous versions allowed wireless synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Server email and calendar, as well as with Lotus Domino email. OS 5.0 provides a subset of MIDP 2.0, and allows complete wireless activation and synchronization with Exchange email, calendar, tasks, notes and contacts, and adds support for Novell GroupWise and Lotus Notes. The BlackBerry Curve 9360, BlackBerry Torch 9810, Bold 9900/9930, Curve 9310/9320 and Torch 9850/9860 feature the most recent BlackBerry OS 7 (launched in 2011). Apps are available for these devices through BlackBerry World (which before 2013 was called BlackBerry App World). Further information: BlackBerry OS Third-party developers can write software using these APIs, and proprietary BlackBerry APIs as well. Any application that makes use of certain restricted functionality must be digitally signed so that it can be associated to a developer account at RIM. This signing procedure guarantees the authorship of an application but does not guarantee the quality or security of the code. RIM provides tools for developing applications and themes for BlackBerry. Applications and themes can be loaded onto BlackBerry devices through BlackBerry World, Over The Air (OTA) through the BlackBerry mobile browser, or through BlackBerry Desktop Manager. BlackBerry devices use the proprietary BlackBerry Messenger, also known as BBM, software for sending and receiving encrypted instant messages, voice notes, images and videos via BlackBerry PIN. As long as your cell phone has a data plan these messages are all free of charge. Some of the features of BBM include groups, bar-code scanning, lists, shared calendars, BBM Music and integration with apps and games using the BBM social platform.