Blackberry smartphones running on Blackberry OS came to an end. As announced, they are not functional after 4th of January 2022. Though not unexpected, the end of their software and services for these devices marks the end of an era in smartphones.
The shutdown means that those who were using the these devices, aren’t able to access data, make phone calls or send SMS messages. Link, Desktop Manager and Blend though will have limited functionality after the said date.
Once they was a smartphone giant with its software, security and physical keyboard phones but by 2012, five years after the arrival of iPhone, it’s market share fell drastically leaving it to battle out for third place with Nokia and Microsoft. Further, after Microsoft acquiring Nokia and launching Lumia series Window OS, they only got 2.9% of worldwide smartphone shipments.
In 2012, to save themselves, they launched full touch smartphone with their new OS called Blackberry OS, launching Blackberry Z10 smartphone. Though this was a new idea from them and gave them a little success but, this move wasn’t enough to get them out of their collapse.
In 2015, they launched their first Android smartphone, the Priv, which played to BlackBerry’s legacy in security and featured its famous keyboard beneath a sliding touchscreen. They also launched the cheaper DTEK50 Android smartphone.
CEO John Chen announced in 2016 that they are shutting down their hardware development to solely focus on software, services and cyber security but they promised to provide services to Blackberry 10 devices for at least 2 years.
The shutdown affects BlackBerry’s Enhanced Sim Based Licensing (ESBL) / Identity Based Licensing (IBL), BlackBerry hosted email addresses, Link, Desktop Manager, Blend, and its remote lock and wipe service, BlackBerry Protect. The Messenger app will continue to be functional on Android and IOS devices.
Now Blackberry’s only focus is on enterprise cyber security.
