This is the end of BlackBerry OS software support. A stop that announces the end of life of a slew of phones that have left their mark in the history of telephony before disappearing in the age of the iPhone and all-touch.
In the early 2000s, they were the stars of corporate mobility before making their way into the general public market. They are the BlackBerrys, phones from the Canadian brand RIM, which had the advantage of running on a proprietary operating system cleverly optimized for productivity – and sending messages via BlackBerry Messenger.
A software which, on January 4, 2022, will no longer benefit from any technical support and any update, even security. BlackBerry thus evokes the “end of life” of its phones sold between 2001 and 2013, since eventually they will be unable to connect to the Internet, send an SMS or make a call.
Before the transition to 2010, and long before the advent of the iPhone, BlackBerrys had a market share of around 20%. Their fall was all the more brutal. The brand may have tried several times to reinvent itself, by abandoning its iconic keyboard to go all-touch or by adopting Android, nothing helped. Since 2015, its market share has flirted with 0 points. Small consolation for those who would still use a BlackBerry under Android, these models are not directly affected by the announced end of support.
Last lap
Here is the explanatory message from the company: Today, BlackBerry is focused on delivering smart security software and services to businesses and governments around the world. Since we pivoted to an enterprise software and cybersecurity company, we have received questions. on our plans to provide continued support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier and BlackBerry 10 devices. In 2017, we committed to provide at least two additional years of support for BlackBerry 10 and at least two years of BlackBerry network access for BBOS devices. On January 4, 2022, devices running on these service offerings through an operator or Wi-Fi connections will no longer work reliably, especially for data, phone calls, SMS and the emergency call functionality. We have chosen to extend our service until this date in order to thank our loyal partners and customers “.