Blackberry 'was first predicted 100 years ago'

Blackberry, the leading smartphone device, had been predicted a century ago by an American physicist, it has been claimed.

Nikola Tesla made the prediction about the portable messaging service way back in 1909 in the Popular Mechanics magazine.

In the mag, he wrote that one day it would be possible to transmit wireless messages all over the world. He also predicted that the hand-held device would be simple to operate and one day, everyone in the world would communicate to friends using it.

The physicist believed that this would usher in a new era of technology.

The magazine's technology editor, Seth Porges, unveiled Tesla's prediction at a presentation to industry figures recently in New York. It was titled "108 years of futurism".

The magazine, published in January 1902, has nine international editions and a readership of millions today, and has always tried to anticipate the world of technology in the future.

"Nikola Tesla was able to predict technology which is still in its nascent forms a hundred years later," The Telegraph quoted Porges as saying.

"He talked a lot about his other great passion, which was wireless power.

"It has taken a little longer to get off the ground, but work on fascinating wireless conductive transmission is going on right now in research centres at MIT and Intel and other places," Porges added.