RIM refused to believe that it was possible to create the iPhone when it was introduced in 2007.

It was the morning of January 9th, 2007. Steve Jobs took the stage at San Francisco’s Moscone Center to change the mobile industry forever. With a brilliant presentation, the Apple Chief introduced the very first iPhone.

The following day, around 24 hours after the 2-hour-long presentation, RIM (makers of the BlackBerry smartphones) executives invited the whole company to an all-hands meeting to talk about the newly-announced iPhone.

A former employee said they then concluded that it was impossible to create what Apple said they had created. RIM refused to believe the iPhone could do everything they said it could, without having terrible battery life.  They also allegedly thought several features was impossible to create. Microsoft, Nokia, Motorola and Palm is said to have had similar reactions.

Enter the release on June 29th, when RIM disassembled an iPhone for the first time, and found that they had been completely wrong. They found that the iPhone was almost one big battery, with a tiny logic board strapped to it, and that it worked exactly as Apple had said it would.

RIM only then started to work on a iPhone competitor, The BlackBerry Storm. Failing to believing the first time, they had however given Apple an even bigger head start.

Such an interesting story, and it shows how big of a leap the iPhone really was. No wonder we had such bad phones when this kind of attitude and ignorance was all over the place.

Via SlashGear via Electronista via Shacknews.