BlackBerry devices will no longer be supported as from today
BlackBerry devices will no longer be supported as from today
You will no longer be able to use that old BlackBerry phone that has been collecting dust in the back of a drawer for the past several years.
In a move scheduled to take effect on Tuesday, BlackBerry will discontinue support for its classic devices running BlackBerry 10 7.1 OS and previous versions of the operating system. The company's older devices that do not run Android software will be unable to use data, send text messages, access the internet, or make calls, including 911 calls, as a result of this change.
While the vast majority of mobile users have abandoned BlackBerry — the last version of its operating system was released in 2013 — the decision to end support for its phones signals the end of an era in which what was once considered cutting-edge technology was no longer relevant to them.
According to the company, the announcement was made in September 2020 as part of its efforts to rebrand as BlackBerry Limited and devote its resources solely to the provision of information security software and services to businesses and governments around the world.
However, despite the fact that BlackBerry (BB) has been largely absent from the phone business since 2016, the company has continued to license the company's brand to manufacturers like TCL and, more recently, OnwardMobility (an Austin, Texas-based security startup) for a 5G Blackberry device running on Android software. There is no impact on BlackBerry Android devices as a result of the service termination.
CrackBerries were the name given to BlackBerry's first cell phones, which had physical keyboards, in the late 1990s and early 2000s because they were so popular at the time. Professionals who desired the freedom to work with some of the tools available on a desktop computer while away from the office were attracted to the keyboard's design.
A result of the devices' excellent security reputation, they quickly became a status symbol and permanent fixture among Wall Street executives, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, and even former President Barack Obama himself. When BlackBerry reached its peak in 2012, it had more than 80 million active users.
The company was founded in 1996 as Research In Motion, and its first products were what were then known as two-way pagers. When the company launched its first device, the "Inter@ctive Pager," it allowed customers to respond to pages by pressing keys on a physical keyboard, similar to text messaging or emailing. Three years later, with the BlackBerry 850, Research in Motion launched the BlackBerry brand.
E-mail, apps, and web browsing were all added to BlackBerry phones over time, as well as BBM, an encrypted text messaging platform that predated WhatsApp and continued to exist long after BlackBerry was surpassed by competitors.
Although BlackBerry's offerings were once cutting-edge, the iPhone touchscreen revolution of 2007 rendered them obsolete. Attempts were made to use touch screens and models with slide-out keyboards, but they were ultimately unsuccessful. It developed a few phones that did not have a physical keyboard, but these devices did not have BlackBerry's primary differentiator: the tactile keyboard.
BlackBerry eventually abandoned its own operating system in favor of Android, which it layered with its own security software to create the BlackBerry PlayBook. Some success was achieved in the enterprise security and automotive software markets, among other areas.
Despite the fact that TCL discontinued BlackBerry-branded devices in 2020, some fans are still holding out hope for the arrival of OnwardMobility's BlackBerry 5G device, which was originally scheduled to launch in 2021 but has since been postponed. Although there has been a delay, the company's website still has a banner that says "coming 2021."
