Blackberry OS smartphones to soon become redundant

by Alicia Brown Application Developer

BlackBerry ceased selling phones and tablets with its own software years ago, moving to Android in 2015 before transitioning from a hardware to a software firm and outsourcing BlackBerry-branded phone creation to third parties.

However, if you have an older BlackBerry phone running BlackBerry OS, you may still use it for some basic functions like web surfing and phone conversations. That will change next week, as BlackBerry has announced that legacy services for BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry PlayBook OS would be discontinued.

Classic BlackBerry devices running BlackBerry OS 7.1 or before, as well as OS 10, will lose essential services as of January 4th.

End of an Era

By "key," we imply features that are really necessary, such as phone calls, messaging, data, and even emergency 9-1-1 access. According to Liliputing, you might expect problems with Wi-Fi and apps like BlackBerry World and Desktop Manager. The PlayBook, the company's ill-fated tablet, will be discontinued on January 4th.

Naturally, none of this is surprising. BlackBerry's software store and famous Messenger (BBM) service were both shut down in 2019. There was no way to share SMS to another platform. If you recall, the firm was much too late to respond to the danger posed by the iPhone, and its adoption of Android flopped miserably. At the very least, QNX, BlackBerry's current operating system, is still in use, powering infotainment systems from Toyota, Audi, Honda, and a slew of other well-known automakers.

Wrapping Up

This is a wake-up call since, in the beginning, established manufacturers such as Nokia and BlackBerry doubted that a full touchscreen phone would ever make a significant effect on the market. Devices with physical keyboards, on the other hand, have been mostly phased away as of late. This shows how vital innovation is for any company, if the innovative process becomes stagnant the company itself will become redundant.

With the termination of official support for BlackBerry devices, we may conclude that an era has come to an end. Notably, we recommend that owners of BlackBerry handsets back up all of their data and plan to switch to another manufacturer in the near future.