ReutersRelated
It's time to bid goodbye to BlackBerry, for real this time as the smartphone company has announced that it is ending support for major BlackBerry OS from January 4, 2022. With this, the company will discontinue offering significant services for its existing devices.
Blackberry, one of the most popular smartphone brands of the time before the high-end phone section took over, will be ending support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 along with previous versions.
From January4, the smartphones will be without provisioning services, which means the devices will not be able to function with several functions such as WiFi connections, data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.
"We thank our many loyal customers and partners over the years," the company said in a statement.
The smartphone, which ruled the tech industry years ago, offered a smooth keyboard-centric designs and was a major hit among business working people who relied on BlackBerry services that provide a high degree of confidentiality and anonymity.
While the OS for smartphones is coming to and end, the company said that applications for BlackBerry Link, BlackBerry Desktop Manager and BlackBerry Blend, will also have limited functionality.
The company also mentioned that BBM Enterprise and BBM Enterprise for Individual Use (BBMe) will continue to be available on other platforms.
Going by sudden shut downs and changes, this could very well be the end of BlackBerry. In the past, the company has experienced a slow decline in the market.
In 2013, BlackBerry tried to reboot itself with a new OS, which failed and then the company tried to switch it in 2015 to make Android devices. But that failed, too.
In the latest announcement, BlackBerry said that their 7.1 OS and earlier applications and the service changes will not impact users ability to access their Password Keeper data, as it is stored locally.
"If you are looking to move to another Password Management Application or BlackBerry Password Keeper for Android, you will need to manually create new entries on your new smartphone," the company added.
Blackberry, one of the most popular smartphone brands of the time before the high-end phone section took over, will be ending support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 along with previous versions.
From January4, the smartphones will be without provisioning services, which means the devices will not be able to function with several functions such as WiFi connections, data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.
"We thank our many loyal customers and partners over the years," the company said in a statement.
The smartphone, which ruled the tech industry years ago, offered a smooth keyboard-centric designs and was a major hit among business working people who relied on BlackBerry services that provide a high degree of confidentiality and anonymity.
While the OS for smartphones is coming to and end, the company said that applications for BlackBerry Link, BlackBerry Desktop Manager and BlackBerry Blend, will also have limited functionality.
The company also mentioned that BBM Enterprise and BBM Enterprise for Individual Use (BBMe) will continue to be available on other platforms.
Going by sudden shut downs and changes, this could very well be the end of BlackBerry. In the past, the company has experienced a slow decline in the market.
In 2013, BlackBerry tried to reboot itself with a new OS, which failed and then the company tried to switch it in 2015 to make Android devices. But that failed, too.
In the latest announcement, BlackBerry said that their 7.1 OS and earlier applications and the service changes will not impact users ability to access their Password Keeper data, as it is stored locally.
"If you are looking to move to another Password Management Application or BlackBerry Password Keeper for Android, you will need to manually create new entries on your new smartphone," the company added.
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