Legacy BlackBerry devices will lose text, call, and data
functionality in 2022 and this would be the very definite ending for legacy
BlackBerry hardware that was once the beloved monarch of the mobile world.
On 4th of January, according to the company any phones or
tablets running BlackBerry’s own software — that’s BlackBerry 7.1 or earlier,
BlackBerry 10, or its tablet operating system BlackBerry PlayBook — will no
longer reliably function. Whether on
Wi-Fi or cellular, there will be no guarantee you can make phone calls, send
text messages, use data, establish an SMS connection, or even call 9-1-1. That
sounds pretty horribly dead to us. Though BlackBerry devices running Android
will continue to work as normal.
As mentioned above, this might not be the last BlackBerry
death we declare. The company has experienced a slow and harrowing fall since
its dominant era in the late 2000s, when its QWERTY keyboards and stand out
security gave it a 50 percent market share in the US, but such a storied brand
has to disappear in such a horrified manner. The parent company, BlackBerry
Limited, has pivoted to selling cybersecurity software.
BlackBerry tried to start up again in 2013 with a new OS,
BlackBerry 10 (which failed), and in 2015 converted to making Android devices
(which failed, too). In 2016, it started certifying its brand to third-party
manufacturers like TCL to linger on the BlackBerry name. In 2020, a Texas firm
named OnwardMobility announced that it would be making a 5G Android-powered
BlackBerry device with a full QWERTY keyboard to release in 2021. But still the
company has not shared any news or updates on its website since January 2021.