BlackBerry ends support for all its classic smartphones

iPhone today is considered one of the most popular smartphones on the market, but back in the 2000s, BlackBerry phones were probably one of the coolest devices anyone could get. Although the old BlackBerry phones are long gone, the company still offered support for them – but not anymore.

To officially put an end to an era, BlackBerry announced on Thursday (via ArsTechnica) it will end support for the classic BlackBerry smartphones that run BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry 10. The company warns customers who still use phones running such software that they will no longer receive any patches to ensure that the carrier or Wi-Fi connection remains functional.

As a result, even basic functions such as calls, cellular data, SMS, and emergency calls may stop working on BlackBerry phones. This, of course, does not affect BlackBerry smartphones that run Android. BlackBerry OS support will officially end on January 4, 2022.

As a reminder, the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions, will no longer be available after January 4, 2022.  As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.   

The “end” of BlackBerry after iPhone

The iPhone certainly changed the entire smartphone industry in 2007, but pretty much all phone makers at the time didn’t believe that Apple would have such an impact on the market.

When Apple announced the first iPhone, multiple executives from RIM (the company that created BlackBerry) made jokes about Apple’s smartphone as they thought consumers would never want a smartphone with a touch screen and a virtual keyboard.

Mike Lazaridis [BlackBerry’s founder] on the iPhone in November 2007: “Try typing a web key on a touchscreen on an Apple iPhone, that’s a real challenge. You cannot see what you type”

However, consumers really appreciated having a smartphone with a large touch screen. And while the iPhone became a huge worldwide success, BlackBerry’s market value only dropped considerably in the years after the introduction of the first iPhone, and the company eventually lost its relevance.

On the other hand, companies like Samsung quickly followed Apple’s path with touch screen smartphones to stay in the market. By the time BlackBerry decided to move on with its smartphones, it was too late.

And if you’re still using a classic BlackBerry phone in 2021, well, you’d better back up all your data as soon as possible. Let us know in the comments section below what you thought about BlackBerry and iPhone back then.

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