R.I.P. BlackBerry: Devices to stop working after Jan. 4

It's the end of an era for BlackBerry phones. The signature handset's software will no longer be supported after January 4th.

BlackBerry devices running the original operating system and services will no longer be supported after Jan. 4, marking the end of an era for the storied device that catapulted work into the mobile era.

Waterloo, Ontario-based BlackBerry Ltd., the company formerly known as Research in Motion whose signature handset in the 1990s came to embody working on the move, said handsets running its in-house software “will no longer be expected to reliably function” after Tuesday, according to its end-of-life page.

The move, first announced in 2020, effectively kills off a line-up that remains popular to this day in parts of the world for its reliability and security. BlackBerry devices and their physical keyboards were once the go-to mobile device both for professionals keeping up with email and younger people messaging on its proprietary platform. The company’s appeal waned as Apple Inc.’s iPhone and a slew of Android handsets with larger displays, better graphics and wider app offerings took over the market during the past decade.

Ref: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-04/your-blackberry-dies-today-end-of-an-era-for-iconic-handset?utm_content=business&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic&cmpid=socialflow-twitter-business&utm_medium=social