BlackBerry’s 25-Year Run Comes to An End Following a Topsy Turvy Decade

This week, BlackBerry ended support for all smartphones, barring those running Android. Today, devices running on Blackberry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10, and others have become paperweights.

Once the undisputed leader in the mobile space, BlackBerry has finally hung up its boots. As ubiquitous as they were in the first decade of this millennium, the company’s support for its mobile devices ended on January 4 this year. Devices running BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions will stop working from today.

Communicated initially in September 2020, BlackBerry confirmed the planned retirement yesterday. “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,” the Canadian company saidOpens a new window .

“For many of us, today is the end of an era – and the beginning of a new one.”#BlackBerryOpens a new window Executive Chairman and CEO @JohnChenOpens a new window shares his thoughts on BlackBerry’s transformation journey and our smartphone heritage: pic.twitter.com/0LMP2RnVKrOpens a new window

— BlackBerry (@BlackBerry) January 4, 2022Opens a new window

Early Successes

The indispensability of BlackBerry phones was quite evident a little after the turn of the century through the late 2000s as Apple began to make its mark. BlackBerry’s on-the-go email and BBM connectivity, not to mention the QWERTY style physical keyboard and high security on its devices, made it popular with professionals. Even President Barack Obama, who refused to let go of his BlackBerry, got a custom one when in office.

BlackBerry’s popularity was a testament to how it revolutionized mobile communications globally. The USP was that suddenly, people could receive and respond to emails from anywhere, which may not be perceived as a game-changer today.

It also became an integral part of day-to-day corporate communications for business executives, especially those in finance and other professionals such as lawyers, reporters, etc. So much so that it was nicknamed CrackBerry owing to its addictive nature.

In 2006, the year before iPhone arrived, Nokia, Motorola and Samsung called the shots in the cellphone industry that saw over a billion devices sold in a calendar year for the first time. However, BlackBerry dominated the handheld computers and PDA segments thanks to a growing demand for wireless access to email and the internet. 

What drove the popularity of BlackBerry phones at workplaces was the ease of using email, and the phones didn’t seem as complicated to operate as the new smartphones. The web browser, text messaging tool and email apps were easy to locate and use, and users loved features like one-click access to voice recognition and some AR apps. However, the greatest assets of BlackBerry phones were the security they offered compared to other phones and how users loved the unique keyboard that enabled fast typing. 

Not many would now believe that the popularity of BlackBerry phones in corporate workplaces was such that the company saw its highest-ever sales four years after the first iPhone arrived. In 2012, a survey revealed that over 63%Opens a new window of workers at U.S. companies still preferred to use their BlackBerrys instead of the new smartphones.

Enter Apple

But failure to identify the threat from Apple early on and the inability to shift the gears of innovation quickly cost BlackBerry dear. While Apple introduced the touchscreen with its first iPhone, it took years for BlackBerry to realize that customers weren’t waiting around for it to bring its touchscreen offerings.

By the time the company did introduce a touchscreen smartphone in 2008, it was too late. BlackBerry or Research In Motion (RIM), as the company was known back in 2010, commanded a 37.3% market shareOpens a new window (40.1% in terms of subscribers) in the smartphone segment. This fell to almost 7% by April 2013Opens a new window . This was a result of a delayed response to Apple and due to the clumsy functionality that generally received average to bad reviews.

In 2013, RIM tried to reboot its market position by introducing a new operating system, the BlackBerry 10, which couldn’t lift off well enough. Later, it resorted to developing only the underlying hardware and tried selling devices with Google’s Android OS, which was the reigning mobile OS with over 80% market shareOpens a new window . This failed as well.

BlackBerry’s sales hit 0.048% by Q4 2016Opens a new window . So it spun off hardware design and development to Indonesia’s BB Merah Putih, India’s Optiemus Infracom, and China’s TCL Corporation, all of which continued to make BlackBerry smartphones until 2019, 2018, and 2020 respectively. Currently, Texas-based OnwardMobility is the licensee for manufacturing Android-based BlackBerry smartphones. The company was rumored to launch a BlackBerry 5G smartphone in 2021Opens a new window .

This is why only devices with BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier, and not Android, will follow floppy discs, fax machines, cassette tapes, walkman, pagers, etc., into obsoletion.

“BlackBerry Android devices will not be impacted by the End of Life EOL of infrastructure services unless they are receiving redirected email sent to a BlackBerry hosted email address, or assigned an Enhanced Sim Based License (ESBL) or Identity Based License (IBL),” the company stated.

“Prior to the EOL date, users of BlackBerry hosted email addresses or using email redirection for these addresses, will need to move to a new email address. If any iOS or Android device, including BlackBerry Android devices, have an ESBL or IBL license assigned, the customer will need to obtain a standard license to cover their use of BlackBerry Enterprise services with that device.”

BlackBerry currently develops enterprise and security software solutions.

Let us know if you enjoyed reading this news on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!