Marking the end of the era for phones with tiny QWERTY physical keyboard, push email and the BBM instant messaging service, BlackBerry Ltd on Tuesday pulled the plug on service for its once ubiquitous business smartphones that had legions of fans in the early 2000s.
In a document published in 2020, the company announced that it is ending support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions from January 4.
Devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or WiFi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality. “We thank our many loyal customers and partners over the years,” the company said.
The devises that company is pulling the plug on will lack the ability to receive over the air provisioning updates and as such, this functionality will no longer be expected to reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality. Applications (BlackBerry Link, BlackBerry Desktop Manager, and BlackBerry Blend) will also have limited functionality.
