I just watched the blackberry series last night. It was a great series and I recommend watching it.
It really brought me back to that time. I actually lived in Waterloo from 2005 to 2010. When RIM was at its peak the world was watching Canada. It was a truly global company, leading the world in what would be smartphones. I knew so many people who worked at RIM and have a career because of that company. Times were great back then.
It made me realize that after the fall of RIM, things have sort of been downhill. I know RIM is still around, but nothing like it used to be. Shopify has also been a great success story, but even still not on the same level as RIM.
Why have we not had any real innovation in this country in almost 20 years?
Blackberry at their peak 20,000 staff
OpenText today 24,000 staff.
One could argue thare ar Canadian Tech companies with larger presence than BlackBerry had. It’s just not consumer level things.
Shopify is smaller at 11,000 staff. But it’s everywhere.
Blackberry controlled 45% of the smartphone market.
The closest comparison today would be Apple and the amount of money that they bring into silicon valley.
OpenText has also arguably done little to no innovation, just packaged up existing technology in regulatory compliant ways and then sold it to governments and large slow moving businesses.