End of an era: Iconic BlackBerry phones stop working from today

The once-indispensable classic BlackBerry devices will no longer work after January 4.

The Canadian company has decided to pull the plug on new updates of its operating system, meaning that most BlackBerries that became synonymous with the emerging mobile digital culture of recent decades will not operate properly after 4th January.

"As of this date, devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and emergency functionality," the company said on its website last month.

The "end-of-life" (EOL) move impacts BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 and earlier versions.

However, devices using Google's Android operating system, including the BlackBerry KEY2 released in 2018 and designed by China's TCL Group, would not be affected by the changes, according to the company.

The EOL decision marks the end of an era in mobile telephony, which reached its peak in the late 2000s when BlackBerry met with widespread commercial success, especially among professionals, for its large QWERTY keyboard.

Source: The Daily Star