( CNN ) -- Remember the CrackBerry ? Five years ago , the buzzing gadget was all the rage -- the rock star of mobile communication and seemingly every office drone 's high-tech status symbol . Sober-minded professionals talked about BlackBerry addiction and `` phantom vibrations '' that caused users to reach for the devices even when they were n't actually doing anything . `` It 's like Pavlov 's dog , '' B. Marc Averitt , a technology investor , told The New York Times in 2007 , referring to the gut-level longing users felt for the click-clack of the phone 's keyboard and humming notice that a new personal message had arrived . Fast-forward to Thursday , and what was the word ? `` Depressing . That 's the only word that comes to mind after reading the RIM Q1 financial results press release and listening to the conference call , '' Chris Umiastowski wrote for the site CrackBerry , which emerged in 2007 , eight years after BlackBerry 's first two-way paging device was released . `` ( But ) as crappy as the results were , I 'm not going to write up a death certificate for RIM here . '' He did n't . And that shows that the folks who still love their BlackBerry still really love their BlackBerry . But let 's be clear : Some analysts do say it 's over for the BlackBerry . `` Anyone who 's been paying attention is n't surprised by BlackBerry maker Research In Motion 's recent collapse , '' a blogger for ReadWriteWeb wrote . `` It 's unfortunate , but it 's been inevitable . '' BlackBerry maker Research In Motion announced Thursday it is laying off 5,000 people -- and said earnings for the past three months were significantly less than expected , with the company reporting a first-quarter loss of $ 518 million . Sales were down 40 % from last year . Furthermore , the new operating system it 's pinning its hopes on will be delayed until next year , or , a full year after it was originally expected . Couple all of that with more reports that the company might be looking to sell off its once dominant service , and you had what amounted to a devastating head-kick for the Canadian company . It capped off a gut-punch of a financial year that has seen RIM 's stock price drop 70 % . So , what happened ? As an even more gadget-obsessed society than we were five years ago , how did we stop being BlackBerry fiends . Photos : Our mobile `` addiction '' Well , how 's this for cruel and cosmic irony ? A day after the dismal report , something called the iPhone celebrated its fifth birthday . You might have heard of it . About 217 million of them have been sold . It may not have been the very first smartphone . But Apple made it sexy . And fun . And the BlackBerry , to many , would soon become the thing they give you at work . `` Apple 's new iPhone could do to the cell phone market what the iPod did to the portable music player market : crush it pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority , '' Lev Grossman wrote for Time . `` This is unfortunate for anybody else who makes cell phones , but it 's good news for those of us who use them . '' The guy has since written a book called `` The Magicians . '' He must have had a crystal ball . Critics say RIM was too slow to react . To be sure , it maintained ( and , to some degree , still does ) the hard-core business user more concerned about reliability and security than playing `` Angry Birds . '' But for many , the thrill was gone . By the time they brought a touchscreen BlackBerry to market , the second-generation iPhone 3G was already capturing hearts and minds . And even the goal of becoming the `` other smartphone '' got further away when Google unleashed its Android operating system and opened it up to phone makers everywhere . The first Android phone , the HTC Dream , hit stores in October 2008 , around the same time as the BlackBerry Thunder . Google 's quicker response paid dividends , and now there are more phones running Android phones than there are iPhones . Ditto all of the above for the BlackBerry Playbook , RIM 's entry into the tablet market that , to be kind , failed to meet sales goals . None of this , as CNNMoney notes , means your BlackBerry will be a useless brick in the near future . RIM still has 78 million subscribers and $ 2.2 billion in cash on hand . But as a cultural icon , it 's hard to see the magic of the mid-2000s returning for the BlackBerry . It 's enough to make you want to tap out a condolence note for the company -- even if many of us will be doing so on a touchscreen . 'CrackBerry , ' Jelly Bean and Apple get just desserts .
After CrackBerry closed , Research In Motion has seen hard times . Maker of BlackBerry reported big losses and losses . Apple 's iPhone release in 2007 helped start the company . Facebook still has billions on Facebook and 78 million subscribers .