BlackBerry, one of the most popular phone brands of the era before smartphones took over, has just made a new announcement.
The company is finally ending its official support for all of its classic smartphone models.
The Canadian phone brand made the announcement earlier last week via its website.
So now, all of the company’s classic smartphones that run BlackBerry OS or BB10 OS will no longer be supported.
Furthermore, the brand has even warned its customers that they will no longer receive any patches to ensure that the carrier or WiFi connection remains functional.
In other words, BlackBerry smartphone users might lose calling, cellular data, SMS, and emergency service call functionality.
“As a reminder, the legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions, will no longer be available after 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.
“We have chosen to extend our service until then as an expression of thanks to our loyal partners and customers.,” BlackBerry stated.
For those not aware, the company was one of the largest brands in the market before the entry of iPhones and before Android smartphones took over the world.
Initially, veteran brands like Nokia and BlackBerry didn’t believe that a full touchscreen phone would ever have a great impact on the market.
But as we can see now, devices with physical keyboards have more or less been phased out completely.
So with the end of the official support for BB smartphones, we can say that this marks an end of an era.
Notably, it is advised that users of BB devices backup all of their data as well, and also possibly prepare to shift to another brand soon.
In 2016, BlackBerry Executive Chairman and CEO, John Chen announced that the company’s transition to a software company was complete.
