The early days of the smartphone era was a bit of a mess. There were so many companies all competing for a slice of the pie at the same time. BlackBerry was one of those companies where they managed to retain a loyal following for many years, but as Apple’s iPhones and Google’s Android platform eventually became the dominant platforms, BlackBerry kind of fell by the wayside.The company tried to find ways around this by licensing out their brand, but those devices felt like they were too little, too late, so much so that it doesn’t come as a surprise that BlackBerry has ultimately decided to call it quits on the mobile front. The company has announced that come 4th of January, 2022, they will be discontinuing the various key services that supported its mobile devices.
According to the company’s FAQ page, “As another milestone in the BlackBerry journey, we will be taking steps to decommission the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions, with an end of life or termination date of 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.”
BlackBerry itself as a company isn’t shutting down. The company continues to operate and according to the FAQ, their focus will be on “providing intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world”.
Filed in . Read more about BlackBerry. Source: arstechnica