RIP your old BlackBerry
Classic BlackBerry phones, once an aspirational product and the very height of mobile technology, are officially joining the growing list of defunct smartphone makers. As of yesterday BlackBerry will no longer run support for any phones running BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier.
BlackBerry's fall from grace is quite remarkable, considering its grip on the higher-end of the cellphone market was at its tightest just a decade ago in 2011 — a year when the company brought in more than $20bn in revenue.
Even as the iPhone and other touchscreen models began to drive out the clickity-clack of BlackBerry's tiny keyboards, some power users - including former President Obama - clung dearly to their BlackBerry's, refusing to switch despite their increasing obsolescence.
But even with a few die-hard fans, BlackBerry's life as a smartphone maker looked increasingly tenuous and by 2016 — just a few short years from the heyday of 2011 — revenues at BlackBerry had fallen by ~90%.
Greener, smaller, pastures
Since then BlackBerry has re-imagined itself. The company's focus has been on building itself into a software company that sells "intelligent security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world". Re-inventing itself has been a slow and difficult process that the company is still churning through. In its last two fiscal years revenues have dropped another 30%.
BlackBerry has sold the rights to the name BlackBerry to third parties, one of which promised to release a 5G BlackBerry in 2021, but very little has been heard about it - so don't hold your breath.
