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BlackBerry’s classic devices, which once ruled the smartphone landscape years before the rise of iPhone and Android, will officially be put out to pasture this week.
On Tuesday, devices using BlackBerry software will no longer “reliably function” starting Jan. 4, the company said in a statement to customers in December.
The news affects devices running BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier its versions. The change will completely remove the ability to surf the internet, make phone calls, and send text messages, regardless of if the device is connected through a carrier or Wi-Fi.
“We thank our many loyal customers and partners over the years,” BlackBerry, the company formerly known as Research in Motion, said in their statement.
BlackBerry smartphones, near-instantly recognizable thanks to their physical keyboards and BBM messaging service, rose in prominence in the 1990s and early 2000s.
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Yet, after the 2007 release of the Apple iPhone — which featured a full touchscreen — BlackBerry struggled to introduce features to stay relevant.
Google would also release its Android software that year, and the combined sales of Apple and Android smartphones in the years ahead effectively pushed BlackBerry out of a market it once dominated.
Yet the company did try to make a last-minute rally with the 2013 release of the BlackBerry 10 OS and its Z10 smartphone. But the company’s modern devices never caught on, and in 2016, it started licensing its name to third-party manufacturers, according to The Verge.
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There was at least one famous BlackBerry lover who continued to use the device until the bitter end: former President Barack Obama.
Shortly after he won his first presidential election, Obama famously fought with aides to keep his BlackBerry smartphone.
“They’re going to pry it out of my hands,” he said, the New York Times reported in 2009.
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In 2022, BlackBerry now focuses on software instead of hardware, providing “intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world,” the company says.
