When the Hiptop/T-Mobile Sidekick was initially released in late 2002, it was the only cellular phone to factory integrate an instant messaging client, specifically AIM. This text-based communications medium, along with on-device email and a full QWERTY keyboard, made it popular with the Deaf community, providing a telecommunications tool for use both inside and outside the home. Almost immediately it began replacing the dominant wireless devices used by the Deaf at that time, namely the Motorola T-900, PageWriter, and TimePort, as well as the early RIM and BlackBerry e-mail pagers manufactured by Research In Motion.