One can no longer utilize the old BlackBerry phone abandoned at the bottom of one’s drawer.
On 4th January 2022, Blackberry stated that the firm would stop running sustenance for its classic devices running BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier. This translates that all of its older plans not functioning on Android software will not be able to utilize data, send SMS, access the internet or make calls (even to emergency numbers).
Whilst most mobile users have moved on from BlackBerry – the most recent version of its OS released in 2013 – the decision to suspend backing for its phones epitomises the end of what was once considered cutting-edge technology.
The firm initially declared the news in September 2020 as a fraction of its efforts to concentrate on providing security software and services to enterprises and governments across the world within the banner of BlackBerry Limited.
About BlackBerry
BlackBerry (BB) has been habitually out of the mobile business since 2016, but over the years it sustained to authorise its brand to mobile producers, inclusive of TCL and more lately OnwardMobility, a Texas-based security start-up, for a 5G BB device functioning on Android software.
BB’s old school cell phones with physical keyboards from the late 1990s and early 2000s were once so widespread, people nicknamed them ‘CrackBerries.’ The keyboard fascinated professionals who wanted the flexibility of working outside the office with some of the tools they operated on a desktop computer.
The devices became a status symbol and fit for people on Wall Street. At its peak in 2012, the mobile manufacturer had over 80 million active users.
The firm saw its birth in 1996 as ‘Research in Motion’ (RIM), with what it called two-way pagers. Eventually, BB mobiles expanded support for email, applications, web browsing, and BBM, an encrypted text messaging portal that preceded WhatsApp and lasted long after the firm was bested by its rivals.
However, Apple’s touchscreen revolution with the iPhone in 2007 made BlackBerry’s contributions appear lacking. It tried touch screens and slide-out keyboard models, with merely any success. It developed a few phones with no physical keyboard, but those were devoid of BB’s principal differentiator: its tangible keyboard.
The firm ultimately abandoned its software, accepting Android and layering its security software on top.