BlackBerry is shutting down many vital services for its smartphones. January 4, 2022 marks a new era.

The early years of the smartphone era were cacophonous to say the least. There were so many players in the market, so many brands competing against each other to try and grab a share of this already huge pie.

BlackBerry was one of those companies and the brand has managed to build a strong community over time. Unfortunately, with the rise of Apple iPhones and Google’s Android platform, BlackBerry failed to bounce back and ended up disappearing, or almost.

BlackBerry shuts down many vital services for its smartphones

The company tried to survive by offering its brand under license, but the devices that emerged in this way did not seem “in time”, too small, too late, too inefficient, too limited.

In fact, it was not a surprise to learn that BlackBerry finally decided to stop the charges in the mobile market. Today, the company announces that, as of January 4, 2022, a number of important services for its mobile devices will be discontinued, outright.

January 4 of 2022 will mark a new stage

According to a help page on the company’s website:

“Another step in the great history of BlackBerry, we are going to start decommissioning the most important services for the BlackBerry OS 7.1 and earlier versions, the software BlackBerry 10, OS BlackBerry PlayBook 2.1 and earlier versions, with an end of life or deletion date set for January 4, 2022. From that date, devices running these services and software, whether through a operator or Wi-Fi will no longer be able to function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and emergency call to 911.”

BlackBerry as a company does not go out of business. It continues to operate and, according to the help page, is now focused on “providing intelligent security software and services to businesses and governments around the world”. A page turns, indeed.

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