BlackBerry, we’re sorry to say, is going away. That’s been happening for a while now and in varying degrees, but those folks with a death-grip on their physical BlackBerry hardware? Yeah, your time is up.
Software support for BlackBerry software officially ends today, meaning you should have replaced your device last week to avoid service interruptions.
The last BlackBerry
More specifically, legacy services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS (or earlier), BlackBerry 10, and BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1 are coming to a close today, 4 January. This doesn’t mean that your device will stop working immediately, however.
But it does mean that it might become unreliable… or stop functioning outright. The company says that “devices …will no longer reliably function”. This includes, “…data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 functionality.” That’s a fairly comprehensive list of things that might stop working at no notice.
Some BlackBerry software will cease functioning today — the stuff that relies on company servers, like BlackBerry World or Link, is toast. Other functionality is on borrowed time. Updates by mobile service providers will see devices rendered unable to connect to mobile networks entirely.
So if you have a stash of BlackBerry Bold models in storage that you dip into every time the old one breaks, they’re about to become entirely obsolete — along with basically everything else running the company’s OS.
What’s next for the company? Oh, just a little lawsuit related to its BlackBerry 10 smartphones. It faces claims from its shareholders that it misrepresented the profitability of the product lineup. The class-action lawsuit could take place sometime in September or October this year.
