When the partnership between BlackBerry and TCL ended, many people thought they would never see BlackBerry smartphones anymore. However, 7 months later, BlackBerry reached a partnership with OnwardMobility. This agreement gives BlackBerry the license to produce BlackBerry phones. According to a recent report, OnwardMobility claims that BlackBerry 5G phones with keyboards are still in development. The official said, “Although we have encountered obstacles and various delays, we will still bring BlackBerry 5G phones to the market.”
According to reports, OnwardMobility originally planned to launch a BlackBerry 5G phone in the first half of 2021. However, we are already in 2022 and we do not know when this device will launch. The speculations so far show that the biggest feature of BlackBerry phones is the complete QWERTY keyboard.
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Some significant changes since the start of BlackBerry
- In 1984, Canadian RIM (Research In Motion) Company was established;
- In 1999, the BlackBerry mobile phone was founded, and gained the favor of the American upper-class people through the 9/11 incident;
- Eleven years later, in 2008, the first BlackBerry smartphone hit the market;
- In 2009, BlackBerry captured 20% of the global smartphone market;
- The glory days of BlackBerry ended in 2009
- On January 30, 2013 – the company’s name changes from “RIM” to “BlackBerry”;
- In September 2013, the number of BlackBerry users in the United States hit its peak, with approximately 85 million users;
- In September 2016, TCL acquired the rights to the BlackBerry brand and released four devices. It also authorized BB Merah Putih in Indonesia and Optiemus Infracom in India to use its brands in some regions;
- On February 4, 2020 – the discontinuation of BlackBerry phones
- On August 19, 2020 – Onward Mobility has authorization to “BlackBerry”
BlackBerry OS Terminates Support Starting January 4th
If you still have an old BlackBerry phone running BlackBerry OS, you could use it as a backup device. However, BlackBerry has announced that it will end support for the legacy services of BlackBerry OS and BlackBerry PlayBook OS. According to the company, many commonly used functions will stop working.
BlackBerry announced that after January 4, 2022, it will no longer provide old services for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier versions, BlackBerry 10 software, BlackBerry PlayBook OS 2.1, and earlier versions. Those models that are connected via operators or Wi-Fi Traditional services and software will no longer operate reliably. This includes data surfing, phone calls, text messages, and 911 emergency calls.
According to BlackBerry, Wi-Fi and mobile data may also become unreliable. Moreover, applications including BlackBerry Link, BlackBerry Desktop Manager, BlackBerry World, BlackBerry Protect, BlackBerry Messenger, and BlackBerry Blend “will also have limited functionality.”
The BlackBerry PlayBook tablet computer will also reach the end of life. This simply means that this tablet computer will have restrictions from January 4. The fact that BlackBerry discontinued production a year after launching the tablet indicates that there may not have been so many PlayBook users since the beginning. This number will certainly be even less in the past ten years.
