# Calling cell phones "blackberries" in 2010? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 22, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968 "2025-03-22T23:46:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 11:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/1 "2025-03-22T23:46:52Z")
In the 2010 film “The Town” with Ben Affleck - the bank robbers have everyone hand over their phones by yelling, “Put your blackberries in the bag!” I know some phones were blackberries but I don’t recall anyone referring to phones in general as blackberries. All the phones in the film seemed like ordinary flip phones. If nothing else, a very dated reference. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [March 22, 2025, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/2 "2025-03-22T23:50:43Z")
I’ve never heard that expression used. ---
**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/3 "2025-03-23T00:05:39Z")
I don’t think anyone ever used the word “blackberry” as a generic term for a cell phone. A phone would only be called a blackberry if it was actually a Blackberry phone. My first thought on reading the post was that it sounds like a paid promotion for product placement. My guess is that Blackberry paid some amount of money to the production company to have their phone mentioned by name in the film. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/4 "2025-03-23T00:33:16Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > My guess is that Blackberry paid some amount of money to the production company to have their phone mentioned by name in the film. Hmm, could be, I guess. But the years of blackberry usage were 1999 to 2016 according to one source so towards the end of their popularity. And the blackberry specialty was phones with full keyboards and I don’t think the ones in the movie were that kind. It was a quick scene. ---
**Author:** ![mixdenny](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mixdenny/32/2962_2.png) [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/5 "2025-03-23T00:37:54Z")
OK. this is weird. I found the scene on YouTube and the captions list the dialogue as “phones” but if you listen close they do say “blackberry”. Scene starts around the 1 minute mark. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBIHinDT2Dc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBIHinDT2Dc) EDIT this link the captions do say “blackberries” around 28 seconds [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHuObrF5C1U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHuObrF5C1U) ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/6 "2025-03-23T00:47:06Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > But the years of blackberry usage were 1999 to 2016 according to one source so towards the end of their popularity. I will point out that, in 2010, Blackberries were still _very_ commonly used, especially by businesspeople who needed mobile access to their email. Smartphones as we know them today only started becoming widely available in 2007, with the introduction of the iPhone (the first Android phones came out a year later), and it took some time for their adoption to become widespread. The article below, from the Pew Institute, shows that their research studies didn’t even start tracking smartphone adoption until 2011, and it was only at 35% then. A year or two earlier (the film in question was released in 2010, but filmed in 2009), modern smartphones. I can tell you, from personal experience, that Blackberries very common in corporate America through at least 2011, though they cratered pretty hard as iPhones and Androids took off over the succeeding few years. > **[Mobile Fact Sheet](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/mobile/)** > > Americans today are increasingly connected to the world of digital information while “on the go” via smartphones. Explore the latest patterns, trends and statistics that have shaped the mobile revolution. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/7 "2025-03-23T01:08:33Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I can tell you, from personal experience, that Blackberries very common in corporate America through at least 2011, though they cratered pretty hard as iPhones and Androids took off over the succeeding few years. As per the [Wikipedia article on BlackBerry Limited](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Limited#2001%E2%80%932011:_global_expansion_and_competition) (formerly known as Research in Motion): > [@](#): > > The iPhone initially lagged behind BlackBerry in both shipments and active users, due to RIM’s head start and larger carrier distribution network. In the United States, the BlackBerry user base peaked at approximately 21 million users in the fall of 2010. But, just a little over two years later (bolding mine): > [@](#): > > As of December 1, 2012, the company had 79 million BlackBerry users globally[[21]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BlackBerry_Limited#cite_note-21) with **only 9 million remaining in the United States**. So, that movie came out at “peak Blackberry.” ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/8 "2025-03-23T01:11:37Z")
Man I loved my Blackberry, but I don’t recall it being a generic term. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/9 "2025-03-23T01:18:16Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > I don’t recall it being a generic term. I don’t recall it as such, either. Blackberries were Blackberries; my recollection is that users did call them that, but I don’t remember anyone using “Blackberries” for cell phones in general. ---
**Author:** ![pirviii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pirviii/32/3233_2.png) [@pirviii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pirviii)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/10 "2025-03-23T01:27:06Z")
I remember them being called crackberries. ---
**Author:** ![Mighty\_Mouse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mighty_mouse/32/7776_2.png) [@Mighty\_Mouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mighty_Mouse)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/11 "2025-03-23T03:28:22Z")
My employer at the time, a fairly tech savvy firm, required you to use ONLY the company supplied BlackBerry for mobile access to email until 2012. Until then we were all carrying around two mobile devices. By 2012 most of us had smartphones, either Android or iPhone, but we still had the BlackBerries. In 2010 it was certainly not considered a foregone conclusion that BlackBerry was an obsolete platform. Or that personal cellphones of an infinite variety could meet “enterprise” data security standards. BlackBerry use was still growing. It turned around very quickly in 2012-13. I had been out of the telecoms business for ten years at the time, but I still had ex-colleagues in the industry and they were all surprised by how quickly everyone went from “never, ever” to “oh, okay then” on personal smartphone use for business. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/12 "2025-03-23T03:32:48Z")
> [@Mighty\_Mouse](#): > > My employer at the time, a fairly tech savvy firm, required you to use ONLY the company supplied BlackBerry for mobile access to email until 2012. In 2011, I had a client at Discover Card, who worked on the Diners Club brand (Discover had just purchased Diners). She walked around with a handful of three BlackBerries: one for her Discover email account, and two different ones for two different Diners email accounts – I never used a BlackBerry, but apparently, she was limited to one email address per device. I don’t know if that was a limitation for BlackBerries, or a policy of her company. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/13 "2025-03-23T08:03:26Z")
_Curb Your Enthusiasm_ had a 2005 episode where characters referred to BlackBerry **messages** as “blackberries” (the joke being that a character sent a “suicide blackberry”). ---
**Author:** ![MacDoc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/macdoc/32/18696_2.png) [@MacDoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacDoc)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 9:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/14 "2025-03-23T09:16:32Z")
They were not really phones but two way pagers. I recall they tried to launch a phone against the big guns and blew the company. Had they stuck to a secure encrypted two way pager they might still be around. There are a couple of good docu on the rise and fall. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/15 "2025-03-23T09:37:16Z")
> [@mixdenny](#): > > In the 2010 film “The Town” with Ben Affleck - the bank robbers have everyone hand over their phones by yelling, “Put your blackberries in the bag!” My guess is that that the film’s screenwriter simply wanted to enjoy some alliteration. “Phones in the bag” doesn’t ring as nice as “blackberries in the bag”. That’s 3 'B’s in the same short sentence, and B is a funny letter. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/16 "2025-03-23T11:58:09Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > I can tell you, from personal experience, that Blackberries very common in corporate America through at least 2011, though they cratered pretty hard as iPhones and Androids took off over the succeeding few years. They were also very common in high schools at the time. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/17 "2025-03-23T12:44:40Z")
> [@MacDoc](#): > > They were not really phones but two way pagers. No. They were phones. They just weren’t smartphones. ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/18 "2025-03-23T12:48:48Z")
> [@MacDoc](#): > > They were not really phones but two way pagers. No, they were really phones. By 2011, RIM had been making real phones for almost 10 years and was long since out of the pager business. And while they started out making pagers, it was the Blackberry email machines that RIM was renowned for. > [@MacDoc](#): > > Had they stuck to a secure encrypted two way pager they might still be around. They are a shell of what they used to be, but RIM/Blackberry is still in business. And somehow, they managed to do it without a 2 way pager division. ---
**Author:** ![ZonexandScout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zonexandscout/32/544_2.png) [@ZonexandScout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZonexandScout)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/19 "2025-03-23T12:48:51Z")
My guess would be that the use of the command to put the “Blackberries” in the bag could be regional, and intended to mock the fact that all the nice, middle class bank employees would have better cell phones than the lower-class local residents. Sort of a, “Yeah, you guys can park your Audis and Mercedes on the street.” ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [March 23, 2025, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968/20 "2025-03-23T12:57:47Z")
> [@filmore](#): > > I don’t think anyone ever used the word “blackberry” as a generic term for a cell phone. I agree - but I think there may have been a short period of time where “blackberry” was almost a generic term for a phone that you could use for more than phone calls and texting. I definitely remember people asking “Do you have a Blackberry?” after the first iPhone was released ( Don’t ask me why exactly, but there was a time in my circles when having a Blackberry was a sign of status because obviously if you had one, your employer thought you were important enough to give you one ) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/calling-cell-phones-blackberries-in-2010/1015968.md?page=2)