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BlackBerry Classic Discontinued to Pave the Way for 'State of the Art Devices'

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BlackBerry has announced that it will no longer manufacture the BlackBerry Classic, meaning that the touchscreen smartphone will no longer be available once remaining stock is depleted through official sales channels.
For many years, Classic (and its BBOS predecessors) has been in our portfolio. It has been an incredible workhorse device for customers, exceeding all expectations. But, the Classic has long surpassed the average lifespan for a smartphone in today's market. We are ready for this change so we can give our customers something better - entrenched in our legacy in security and pedigree in making the most productive smartphones.
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BlackBerry Classic, equipped with a physical QWERTY keyboard, was unveiled in December 2014 with a design similar to the once-popular BlackBerry Bold smartphone series released between May 2008 and November 2011. BlackBerry's dominance has shrunk considerably since then, however, with iOS and Android smartphones now combining for some 98 percent of worldwide market share.

BlackBerry said it will be updating its smartphone lineup with "state of the art devices," presumably with an Android focus like the BlackBerry Priv. The company will continue to support BlackBerry 10 with software updates, including version 10.3.3 due next month and a second update to follow next year. The BlackBerry 10-powered BlackBerry Passport and BlackBerry Leap remain available for sale.

Article Link: BlackBerry Classic Discontinued to Pave the Way for 'State of the Art Devices'
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/07/05/blackberry-classic-discontinued-to-pave-the-way-for-state-of-the-art-devices/
If it is not android, it will expire before it leaves the assembly plant regardless of its name, color,size...
 
I thought Blackberry ceased to exist a few years ago? They went bankrupt, laid off everyone, sold off their patents... how are they still existing?
 
sputnikv said:
"state of the art" must have a different meaning coming from a company that is just now eliminating their physical keyboarded phone
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Keyboards aren't going anywhere, mate. Google 'Blackberry Rome' or 'Blackberry Mercury'. They've just retired their only full production BB10 device. The only other one was the Passport, which was strictly short-run.
 
Had RIM not underestimated Apple entering the phone business and had the company acted like Google and like all of us instantly realized the future of smartphones the second Steve Jobs walked off the stage that day in 2007, RIM could have taken their massive installed user base of loyal BlackBerry users and grabbed this market.
I still think that Android and iOS would emerge the dominant operating systems but there's a chance that RIM could have worked out an arrangement with Microsoft with which they already had a comfy relationship and built a phone that could find a place in the market. They had yet another opportunity when Android cemented itself as the OEM operating system of choice. Still, they remained stubborn that somehow BlackBerry would come from behind.
They've finally figured out the inevitable, but without years of lost time, billions of lost stock value and all but their most crackberry addicted user base remaining.
The BlackBerry case study will be written about in business books for generations to come on how to keep your mind open to disruptions in an industry and how to not cling to old conventions simply because they were popular at some point — specially if your company's very existence depends on it.
 
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ipedro said:
Had RIM not underestimated Apple entering the phone business and had the company acted like Google and like all of us instantly realized the future of smartphones the second Steve Jobs walked off the stage that day in 2007, RIM could have taken their massive installed user base of loyal BlackBerry users and grabbed this market.
I still think that Android and iOS would emerge the dominant operating systems but there's a chance that RIM could have worked out an arrangement with Microsoft with which they already had a comfy relationship and built a phone that could find a place in the market. They had yet another opportunity when Android cemented itself as an OEM operating system. Still, they remained stubborn that somehow BlackBerry would come from behind.
They've finally figured out the inevitable, but without years of lost time, billions of lost stock value and all but their most crackberry addicted user base remaining.
The BlackBerry case study will be written about in business books for generations to come on how to keep your mind open to disruptions in an industry and how to not cling to old conventions simply because they were popular at some point — specially if your company's very existence depends on it.
Click to expand...

The fault can be laid with Mike Lazaridis far more than anyone else. Between his obsession with a display that functioned as a mouse button and his dismissal of anything that wasn't 2 or 2.5G, he was the Canadian Steve Ballmer. He had a good-enough IBM mentality up through the failure of the Storm 2. and by the time Thorsten Heins got in there, it was over; he really only released the Z10 handset/BB10 to see if a miracle happened and to present a healthy company as it was shopped for a buyer.
 
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Based on their history, I assume when they say "state of the art" they are going to release an android phone running gingerbread.
 
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I wish Apple would have bought Blackberry and we would have PKB with iOS with dark theme.
Just think about it what it means in terms of security technologies (iMessage, encryption)
This would be such a smart move from Apple. I would definitely buy a Blackberry with iOS!
 
JohnGrey said:
Keyboards aren't going anywhere, mate. Google 'Blackberry Rome' or 'Blackberry Mercury'. They've just retired their only full production BB10 device. The only other one was the Passport, which was strictly short-run.
Click to expand...

That may be, but BB is getting out likely because they aren't selling.

While this is strictly anectdotal, I have seen only one smartphone with a physical keyboard in the last 3 years. And it was being used by someone who was over 50. That is not the picture of a healthy product. Is there some kind of statistical data for the number of smartphones being sold with physical keyboards for a more representative sample?
 
ipedro said:
The BlackBerry case study will be written about in business books for generations to come on how to keep your mind open to disruptions in an industry and how to not cling to old conventions simply because they were popular at some point — specially if your company's very existence depends on it.
Click to expand...

I hope we won't say exactly the same about Apple and the iPhone in 10 years.
 
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sputnikv said:
"state of the art" must have a different meaning coming from a company that is just now eliminating their physical keyboarded phone
Click to expand...
Just because you don't have a use for a physical keyboard, doesn't mean nobody has.

I can type fairly fast on my iOS on-screen keyboard, especially on iPad, but I'm not gonna lie: I ****ing hate that POS.

Whenever I have the chance to use a BT keyboard, I will.

Physical may chronologically come before the touch-screen keyboard, but it remains a superior UX for many many cases, at least for me and apparently a fair share of others.

Glassed Silver:mac
 
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