BlackBerry Dies Today: End Of The Road For BlackBerry Devices

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

Any phone or tablet running Blackberry’s software that’s Blackberry PlayBook will, “no longer reliably function” says the company. Whether on Wi-Fi or cellular, there’ll be no guarantee you can make phone cells, send text messages, use data or establish an SMS connection, or even call 9-1-1.

BlackBerry tried to reboot itself in 2013 with a new OS, Blackberry 10 (which failed) and in 2015 switched to making Andriod devices (which failed, too). Then in 2016, it started licensing its brand to third-party manufacturers like TCL.

This is still how the BlackBerry name lingers on, and in 2020, a Texas firm named OnwardMobility said it would be making a 5G Android-powered BlackBerry device with a full QWERTY keyboard to release in 2021.