I fondly remember my first BlackBerry, the BlackBerry 8700. What a time to be alive! That full-sized keyboard, BrickBreaker, access to the internet, email, and messages. BlackBerry’s were showing up in major motion pictures, gaining popularity with celebrities, and hitting the mainstream.
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Then along came the touch screen interface, iPhone, and Android. BlackBerry resisted and insisted on keeping its physical keyboard and not doing much with its software. Sadly, this ended up hurting the company more than helping. Resistance was futile, and iOS, Android, and Windows Phone took the market over.
The company forged ahead but didn’t last much longer and was sold off where the new owners started churning out new touch screen BlackBerry’s with Android instead of BlackBerry OS. The original company and concept were pretty much dead.
But even though the phones and OS were dead, users were still able to use their old BlackBerry’s. Everything still worked, albeit slowly and without much support. A small community kept some apps available and worked hard at keeping the functionality of the phones in a place that was at least usable.
But now, it looks like the final nail in the coffin is coming for BlackBerry users. In an updated blog post, the company says the following about its OS and services concerning legacy devices.
Updated December 22, 2021: 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.
Basically, users of these legacy devices should know that starting on January 4th, your services may or may not function. And this isn’t just cellular and texting services; Wi-Fi connections may not work either, leaving those devices totally useless.
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