Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry
Losing the Signal takes readers inside Research In Motion, the Canadian company that turned pagers into the BlackBerry and, for a moment, ran the mobile world. Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff draw on hundreds of interviews with founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, along with executives, engineers, and directors, to trace the culture and technical bets that made the company great. They then chart the decisions that broke it, from the reaction to the first iPhone to the mismanaged shift to touchscreens and apps. The book is generous to its subjects while being clear eyed about the errors. It is one of the best case studies available on how dominant technology companies lose their edge when the ground moves under them.
What you might want to know about Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry
The questions readers send us most often, answered without spoilers.
Jacquie McNish and Sean Silcoff report the inside story of how BlackBerry rose to define the smartphone, then unraveled under pressure from Apple and Google.
Wilkinson is a Canadian investor with a soft spot for BlackBerry history, and he has recommended the book as one of the best studies of how great companies get outmaneuvered when platforms shift.
Yes. The authors interview Lazaridis and Balsillie extensively and give real credit for what they built, while being honest about the strategic errors that followed the iPhone launch.
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry was written by Jacquie McNish, published in 2015 by Flatiron Books.
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry is 288 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry takes most readers 4 to 6 hours to finish.
Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of BlackBerry is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.
