Canadian company BlackBerry will officially terminate service on many models of their once-indispensable nostalgic devices that became famous for their physical keyboard.
This is after the firm decided to pull the plug on new updates of its operating system, meaning most BlackBerries that were embraced by politicians and business executives will not operate correctly after January 4.
The decommissioning will, however, not impact BlackBerry phones running on Android software, but means devices running the company’s legacy services and software will no longer have reliable data, phone calls, text messages and 9-1-1 functionality.
This decision marks the end of an era in mobile telephony, which reached its peak in the late 2000s when BlackBerry met with widespread commercial success, especially among professionals.
The large QWERTY keyboard for easier emailing and the simple, uncluttered design were favoured by business leaders, celebrities, politicians and journalists.
Former US President Barack Obama was famously addicted to his BlackBerry and insisted on keeping his phone in the White House after his election in 2008.
This forced his security detail to build him a custom model reduced to basic features to keep his data safe.
The announcement about the end of the BlackBerry phone was originally posted on the company’s website in September 2020.
The last operating system was launched in 2013, and in 2016 the company announced a move away from phones and into security software and services for companies and governments across the world.
