It’s time to bid goodbye to that old BlackBerry smartphone sitting in your junk drawer. The original smartphone company, initially known as Research In Motion (RIM) announced that it is ending support for BlackBerry OS on January 4, 2022. The former Canadian tech powerhouse will be end support for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1. This means all non-Android based BlackBerry’s will useful. The last version of BlackBerry OS was launched in 2013.
BlackBerry (BB), was the most popular smartphone brand before the iPhone. It was an icon beloved by wall-street types as they clutched the smartphone with a keyboard and trackball. It was dubbed CrackBerry hinting at how dependent people were on them. POTUS Obama refused to give his up when he entered the White House in 2009. BlackBerry’s appealed to professionals who wanted the flexibility of work from anywhere before the pandemic.
The last BlackBerry original smartphone
BlackBerry stopped shipping phones and tablets with its own software years ago. The last device to run BlackBerry OS was the BlackBerry Leap, introduced in 2015. BB jumped on the Android bandwagon in 2015. The firm continued to license its brand to phone manufacturers. Licensees included TCL and OnwardMobility, an Austin, TX-based startup, for a 5G Blackberry device running on Android software. It has previously promised a 5G BlackBerry device in 2021, but it’s now since it’s 2022 – there are doubts it will ever be released.
Until now you could hack an older BlackBerry phone running BlackBerry OS to maintain limited capabilities. With some work 
you With some work you could:
- Connect to the internet over Wi-Fi and mobile data;
- Make phone calls, Including 9-1-1 emergency calls; and
- Send SMS.
All that is over. BlackBerry says Wi-Fi and mobile data might become unreliable. The apps that really made the BlackBerry unique including BlackBerry Link, BlackBerry Desktop Manager, BlackBerry World, BlackBerry Protect, BlackBerry Messenger, and BlackBerry Blend “will also have limited functionality.”
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The company has rebranded itself as BlackBerry Limited to focus on providing security software and services to enterprises and governments around the world.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.