Blackberry says farewell to its classic old phones

You can’t use that old BlackBerry phone you have placed at the back of your drawer any more.

The company will discontinue supporting its classic old phones running BlackBerry 10 7.1 OS and older.

This implies that any of its older devices that aren’t running Android software. As a result, even basic functions including calls, cellular internet, SMS, and emergency calls on BlackBerry phones may stop working. Of course, BlackBerry cellphones running Android are exempted from this.

For some, the deadline marks the end of an era before touch screens, Apple Pay, and TikTok, when BlackBerries ruled the offices, airport lounges, and the premier’s residents.

BB has been largely out of the phone market since 2016, although it has continued to licence its name to phone manufacturers throughout the years, including TCL and, most recently, OnwardMobility, an Austin, Texas-based security firm, for a 5G Blackberry handset running Android software. (The discontinuation of service does not effect BlackBerry’s Android smartphones.)

BlackBerry’s old-school cell phones with physical keyboards, which were popular in the late 1990s and early 2000s, were nicknamed “CrackBerries.”

According to The Guardian, the company had approximately 20% of the worldwide smartphone market, 50% of the US market, and sold more than 50 million handsets per year at its peak in 2009 and 2010.

The entry of iPhones and Androids to the smartphone market, on the other hand, revolutionized everything.

While this new move marks the end of an era that helped start the smartphone industry’s current phase, BlackBerry’s popularity and success will not be forgotten as the market evolves.