BlackBerry has announced that significant services for its older handsets would be phased down 2022
According to Mashable, the company’s cellphones will no longer provide provisioning services as
of January 4. As a result, it will be unable to connect to networks, including the mobile phone network.
BlackBerry’s keyboard-centric designs had sparked significant demand a few years ago, particularly
among business professionals who rely on BlackBerry services that give a high level of security and
anonymity. With the advent of the first touchscreen phone, BlackBerry may not be able to accomplish
much.
Although Android phones, which resembled cheap BlackBerry knockoffs at the time, turned their focus
to touch screen interfaces, the arrival of the first iPhone rocked the industry. BlackBerry, on the other
hand, had no idea what was going on.
It contested the rise in popularity of on-screen keyboards, instead relying on services that
businesspeople were realistically dependant on. As a result, the company took at least a year to create
the first touchscreen phone. BlackBerry, currently a marginal player in the industry, has chosen to
forgo its own services in favour of Android.
After a few phones that were indisputably beautiful and drew some users, BlackBerry realised it
couldn’t keep up with the industry and quit the hardware sector. The BlackBerry-branded licence was
sold to a few manufacturers, but the corporate security services were kept.
Mashable reports that this means the company will continue to support outdated BlackBerrys running
its proprietary software. However, these are old phones. Shutting down BlackBerry OS won’t have
much of an impact because the most recent software upgrade was released in 2013.
It’s hard to believe that some people still use BlackBerry phones from the early 2000s. BlackBerry, on
the other hand, is ready to retire if there are any remaining users. BlackBerry has announced that it
will no longer reply to provisioning updates for its handsets on its FAQ page. As a result, those
gadgets would no longer be able to connect to Wi-Fi or cellular networks.
These devices will eventually stop working, and “data, texts and calls, SMS, and 911 capabilities” will
be lost. BlackBerry World and BlackBerry Link will be terminated on January 4th.
