Classic BlackBerry Smartphones Are Officially Dead

[Tsepz]

I remember BlackBerry hitting its peak in South Africa somewhere in the early 2010s, the key driver down here was the BIS package, R60 (~$3.75) per month for unlimited data/internet connectivity which is a great deal given the high cost of data down here.

When they brought out the BB10 devices (e.g. Z10) with the BIS package removed, they began free falling almost immediately. Most of my family and friends had BBs be it for work or personal usage but I chose Samsung Galaxy and Apple iPad at the time, very happy I did, I could tell BBs were nothing outside of their keyboards.

I always used to go and look at the top flagship BlackBerry of the specific year, look at it’s hardware and wonder why the hell anyone would want it, at some point the 9810 Torch was the best they had and it was nothing in comparison to the Androids and iPhone at the time. I remember trying out a relative’s 9810 Torch alongside my Samsung Galaxy S2 (i9100) at the time and being so shocked at how behind the 9810 Torch was and that was BBS best effort that year. BB were clueless when it came to building a phone for Media consumption & graphically driven Social Media (Instagram, Facebook, Vine (at the time) etc…) and you could tell.

 

[svish]

Sad to see BlackBerry go out

 

[casjohnr]

I remember in my old job having to set up a BlackBerry server and link it to our Novell GroupWise server so the executives could receive their email on the go, fun times

 

[Viale Montanane]

But ... but ... sob ... you can still make phone calls, right ?

BB10 seems to get a lot of things right. I am waiting for an implementation in FOSS of QNX, and then of BB10, so I can use my BB Passport again to its full capability.

 

[w5jck]

I kept using a BB until I bought an iPhone 5. The BB suffered from a lack of apps and a good app store. Hardware-wise though it was a great phone. I still miss the physical keyboard that to this day makes using touchscreen keyboards seem like a really bad experience! The lack of a touchscreen did make navigation a PITA. Considering the other options in the pre-iPhone era, it was the best choice, and it had a very secure network. But like the Palm and others, it didn't evolve to compete against iOS and Android when they became popular.

 

[bandrews]

Amateur hour is over.

iPad killer /s

 

[webkit]

Maybe Apple can buy some of their patents and incorporate them into iOS.

BlackBerry sold 90 mobile/smartphone patents to Huawei about a year ago.

 

[Rainshadow]

Right around the time when we will be talking about the demise of Rolex, Levi’s and Coca Cola. Just because some companies eventually fail doesn’t mean that all of them do. Some companies actually do live to be a hundred. I believe Apple is better suited to do that than any other tech company. But they are not alone, certain others have built up a broad enough portfolio and solid business models that they won’t just be tipped over. Microsoft comes to mind. RIM and Nokia were one-trick ponies. Although at one point it was popular to say that about Apple, they have proven that they are not. The key is in the video linked to above: Put the customer first*, not competitors, not even the product itself.

*”Customer first” does NOT mean always do what the customer wants! It’s about focusing on how to monetize best on the things the customers actually focus on. Apple is better at this than anyone, and if you look at the stock value and still claim otherwise, you are a moron. To bet on Apple failing some time in the future is to make a blind bet that Apple will put a moron in charge. Which is a lot less likely.

Whether apple falls or not, the iPhone will eventually come to an end. My bet is apple will introduce the iPhone killer themselves someday. But that still seems to be a long way off.

 

[metapunk2077fail]

And nothing of value was lost.

Officially dead in 2006.

 

[ipaqrat]

I lamented RIM/Blackberry death due to chronic hubris. iOSRoid's security features eventually caught up to BB, though my cynicism gland continues to excrete suspicions that the feds have the hotel passkey, which they guard like cracking Enigma in WWII.

Today, I still loathe Apple's capacitive keyboarding and retarded auto-correct experience, which is worsened only by turning autocorrect off. 'Droid ain't much better. I remember giving up my gov't blackberry for an iphone. In two minutes, I knew capacitive controls would be a persistent hemorrhoid.

So who has the stones to build a clip on tactile-buttony keyboard for the bottom 20-33 percent of an iphone, resting right on/across the screen glass, coupled to an app that alters the viewport so that native apps are forced into the top 66-80 percent of the display, with all controls working, apart from what is provided by the tactiles? And make the little keyboard flip round the back of the phone and launch/kill the app automatically as required. And make it use the dataport OR bluetooth so you can have it in airplane mode, or use it with your fingertips when the phone in a cradle or charging.

Of course, if one were truly ambitious, one could create a suite of apps to interact with the native apps (cuz, I need my native macbook and icloud and stuff to all synch right.).

Perhaps it might be attached with a full backplate, like mag-safe except not suck. Extended battery in there? Camera shutter button? small additional eInk screen? HOLY CRAP I'M OUT OF CONTROL HERE!

Call it the I'mBackBerry and I'll pledge about tree fiddy on kickstarter.

 

[elvisimprsntr]

Just another company who tried to stay relevant by desperately buying up other companies to stop the bleeding into the shark infested waters while their life boat was sinking. It was just a matter of time before they met their demise.

BB - QNX, etc

List of mergers and acquisitions by BlackBerry - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

MS - Nokia, etc

List of mergers and acquisitions by Microsoft - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Google - Motorola, FitBit, etc

List of mergers and acquisitions by Alphabet - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[hrMACnstuff]

ahhh the blackberry era. with all our current technology, and seemingly weekly os updates, life is anything but simpler.

 

[LonestarOne]

But ... but ... sob ... you can still make phone calls, right ?

The first line says, “As of January 4, 2022, all classic BlackBerry smartphones running versions of BlackBerry OS will no longer work for calls, text messages, data, and emergency functionality…”

 

[LonestarOne]

I remember some Microsoft employees who ridiculed me when I said the iPhone was going to mean the end of Blackberry.

 

[bobtem]

ABC

 

[bsbeamer]

Hard to believe the Sony Clie will outlive Blackberry.

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

How are all the people that can't live without their Blackberrys going to survive? I had a client that everything had to be Blackberry, and their in-house email system had to feed the email to it too. At the time, it was buggy as heck (did it ever get better?) so he just forwarded all of his email to his own home server (Yeah, he was a self described 'Server Expert' and always trying to 'see how things worked'. The owner had to deny his request for a full admin account on their server, thank Ford. He was SURE he could get it to work) and even with his own server, it was flaky. He was always whining about missing emails, and they were right there on his Blackberry GUI web hot mess. *shrug*

 

[PinkyMacGodess]

Hard to believe the Sony Clie will outlive Blackberry.

I gave my Palm Treo Windoze Phone an anonymous burial. Gave the batteries to the local store that said they still had people using them. Really? Why?

 

[webkit]

I remember some Microsoft employees who ridiculed me when I said the iPhone was going to mean the end of Blackberry.

Since we're talking here about the end of the BBOS and not necessarily the end of BB phones, Android deserves a lot of the credit/blame as well.

 

[webkit]

ABC

NBC

 

[dontwalkhand]

Chances are, the iPhone will be gone and replaced by another apple product, long before apple falls. But you can never know.

Kind of like how iPhones and iPads pretty much killed off the entire iPod line.

 

[dontwalkhand]

I really miss Blackberry, the device. not their Android re-write but the original OS. I ended up buying one on eBay for $100 (A Blackberry Bold) in 2017 and putting my iPhone in a drawer for a week to see if I could go back. I'm one of those people who doesn't use my iPhone that much compared to my computer. I need a device for calls, texts, emails and maps. Unfortunately, BlackBerry's email system on those old devices was POP only. They didn't even have IMAP on devices being sold in 2013. I didn't want to stand up a BES server so that was sort of strike one. Then strike 2 was the lack of any modern software. and the maps app unfortunately had languished compared to the competition. The issue was not the physical keyboard. I LOVED having that back. I didn't care about the small screen. typing without lookin gat the screen was awesome but Blackberry hadn't caught up with technology and developers had long since left them behind so I sold the bold for $100 a month later and went back to iPhone.

What I really want in 2021 is a feature-phone. One not built on iOS or Android. just give me a web browser, rudimentary camera for taking photos of barcodes and labels, a good email client and turn by turn navigation along with a small fits in your hand device and a physical keyboard with 3-7 day battery life. I'd love that for every day carry and only use an iPhone when I'm fully disconnected and need to do more basic computing tasks.

You can easily do that with any iPhone. Use Focus or just delete apps and only keep Safari, Maps, Camera, Wallet etc on it. When you want to use the iPhone for more, disable the Focus, or reinstall the apps.

 

[dontwalkhand]

I lamented RIM/Blackberry death due to chronic hubris. iOSRoid's security features eventually caught up to BB, though my cynicism gland continues to excrete suspicions that the feds have the hotel passkey, which they guard like cracking Enigma in WWII.

Today, I still loathe Apple's capacitive keyboarding and retarded auto-correct experience, which is worsened only by turning autocorrect off. 'Droid ain't much better. I remember giving up my gov't blackberry for an iphone. In two minutes, I knew capacitive controls would be a persistent hemorrhoid.

So who has the stones to build a clip on tactile-buttony keyboard for the bottom 20-33 percent of an iphone, resting right on/across the screen glass, coupled to an app that alters the viewport so that native apps are forced into the top 66-80 percent of the display, with all controls working, apart from what is provided by the tactiles? And make the little keyboard flip round the back of the phone and launch/kill the app automatically as required. And make it use the dataport OR bluetooth so you can have it in airplane mode, or use it with your fingertips when the phone in a cradle or charging.

Of course, if one were truly ambitious, one could create a suite of apps to interact with the native apps (cuz, I need my native macbook and icloud and stuff to all synch right.).

Perhaps it might be attached with a full backplate, like mag-safe except not suck. Extended battery in there? Camera shutter button? small additional eInk screen? HOLY CRAP I'M OUT OF CONTROL HERE!

Call it the I'mBackBerry and I'll pledge about tree fiddy on kickstarter.

Ryan Seacrest tried to, but then got sued by BlackBerry to stop making them.

 

[Jetscreamer]

You young whippersnappers probably don’t realize every man, women and child was sporting a BlackBerry, pre 2007. It was the must-have phone for all the movers and shakers in business, politics and entertainment. If you weren’t tapping on a BlackBerry device, then you were an outcast.

 

[chrono1081]

Good riddance, I always hated Blackberries but understood why some liked them. After the iPhone though as well as the rise of Android the writing was on the wall. People tried to claim they "just couldn't get work done without their Blackberry" but it was purely failure to adapt on their ends. Aside from a physical keyboard, which some preferred, Blackberries were weaker in every single way.