BlackBerry OS devices will stop working on January 4

BlackBerry is ending support to all its classic smartphones starting January next year. The company has updated its support page where it says that 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.

This means that customers using BlackBerry devices running these legacy services and software will no longer receive software patches to ensure that the carrier or Wi-Fi connection remains functional. This will include data, phone calls, SMS and 911 functionality for US users. BlackBerry smartphones that run Android will not be impacted.

Before the era of iPhone that started sometime around year 2007, BlackBerry phones were very popular among users along with Nokia handsets. BlackBerry launched its first handheld device in the form of a two-way pager in 1999. By the second half of 2000s, its product portfolio included smartphones like BlackBerry Curve Bold, BlackBerry Pearl and others. Not only the classic QWERTY keypad, but applications such as BlackBerry Messenger stood out in BlackBerry phones.

In 2008, the company introduced BlackBerry Storm – its first full-touch screen device to take on the iPhone that was launched in 2007. But its sluggish performance made BlackBerry go back to the full QWERTY keypad phones even for the touch-screen devices that were launched later.

RIM (the company that made BlackBerry phones) executives at that time did not see iPhones or early Android phones as a threat to BlackBerry devices. Instead, they made jokes about Apple’s smartphone as they thought their consumers, who were primarily corporates and business professionals, would never want a smartphone with a touch screen and a virtual keyboard. Eventually, while Apple iPhones became a huge success worldwide, BlackBerry’s market declined.

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