The company's first touchscreen phone, the Blackberry Torch, is held for display during its debut in New York in 2010.
The company that used to dominate smart mobile devices recently announced that it was ending some services. The ability to join networks, including the cellular network, will gradually be lost as of January 4th, when the phones no longer have Provision services.
If you weren't using cell phones at the time, it may seem difficult to imagine thatBlackBerry dominated the smartphone market. It was widely adopted in corporate settings because of the high levels of security and control it provided. The early builds of the operating system looked like a cheap imitation of a Canadian company, rather than the real thing.
The leadership of the company was surprised by the popularity of the phone. The market was maintained by its stranglehold on corporate services. It took over a year for the company to come out with a touch screen phone, and its software was an awkward mix of old and new. Corporate users fell in love with their Apple and Android phones, and IT departments were compelled to support them.
Advertisement
After giving up on its own phones,BlackBerry started releasing versions of its operating system, and then exited the hardware business entirely. The devices affected here are very old because the last version of theBlackBerry OS was released in 2013). The promised period of support ended over a year ago, so it has already delivered on its promises.
The former device maker has an FAQ page that explains the effect of the end of support. The key change is thatBlackBerry will no longer be sending out updates to these devices. The devices should establish connections with different types of networking equipment according to the provision information. At some point in the future, service providers will make networking updates that will mean that the devices can't connect. The devices will no longer be expected to reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1.
There are a few software services that use connections to the server of the Canadian company. On the 4th, if you relied on something likeBlackBerry World orBlackBerry Link, those will stop working.
The number of people that are likely to be affected is small. It serves as a clear marker of the end of a technology.
