Bye Bye BlackBerry! The beloved noughties phone to be switched off for good from today

Virgin Radio

4 Jan 2022, 11:39

Favoured by celebrities and business people alike, the BlackBerry was once the hottest phone on the market, but this week, users will have to say RIP to the iconic handsets.

From today (4th January), BlackBerry says their famous keyboard devices will ‘no longer reliably function’ as they will stop all software support for them. 

Anyone still using this piece of tech will now find making calls, sending texts or receiving data very difficult. 

Their sad demise came as iPhones shot up in popularity from 2008 onwards, and the Canadian company started to focus more on security software. 

Last year, BlackBerry confirmed it would start taking legacy services offline at the start of 2022, which means support for its own operating systems. 

Turning off support means things like hosted email addresses, the desktop manager, and BlackBerry Link, their sync process, will be wiped out totally today.

It won’t come as a total shock to hear that the last operating system for BlackBerry was released all the way back in 2013 as iPhone and Android systems grew massively in the smart phone industry.

Another nail in the coffin came in 2016 when WhatsApp dropped its support for the older phones, but by that time BlackBerry had stopped making the headsets entirely. 

The company decided to maintain the software for so long afterwards ‘as an expression of thanks’ to their loyal customers, who obviously preferred the satisfying click of a keyboard instead of the swipe of a touchscreen. 

Huge stars like the Kim Kardashian and even President Obama helped the BlackBerry brand sore in the early aughts, but now the time has come to say goodbye to the BlackBerry for good.