The Canadian smartphone pioneer, whose flagship device was once considered so essential and addicting that it earned its users the nickname "crackberry", is turning the page.

The Canadian brand has in fact decided to stop updating its operating system OS which devices sold until 2013 are equipped.

"Older systems for BlackBerry 7.1 OS and earlier versions, BlackBerry 10 software as well as BlackBerry Playbook OS 2.1 and earlier versions will no longer be available after January 4, 2022," the company announced on its website last month. .

From now on, "devices using these old services and software, through their provider or their Wi-Fi connection, will no longer function reliably," BlackBerry explained.

However, devices using Google's Android operating system, including the BlackBerry KEY2 released in 2018 and designed by Chinese group TCL, will not be affected by these changes.

This decision marks the end of an era of mobile telephony, which reached its peak at the end of the 2000s, a period during which BlackBerrys met with great commercial success, particularly among professionals.

The large keyboard for easy sending of emails, by typing with two thumbs, as well as the simple and uncluttered style of the devices have found the favor of many business leaders, celebrities but also politicians.

Hooked on his BlackBerry, former US President Barack Obama had thus been keen to keep it in the White House after his election in 2008, forcing his close guard to make a custom model for him, reduced to basic functions to preserve security. of its data.

- Replaced by the iPhone -

BlackBerrys were then supplanted by smartphones, starting with the iPhone, which hit the market in 2009.

Relaunch attempts have ended in relative failure.

The partnership with TCL for the KEY2, the latest model, has not been renewed.

"For the die-hards it's the end of an era. BlackBerry was the first smart phone so we can say that it's not just the end of a chapter but that of a whole book," said Bruno. Guglielminetti, high-tech specialist based in Montreal.

"We often talk about the world of work but it also revolutionized political life in depth. It was the beginning of the immediacy that foreshadowed the rest, with the arrival of social networks," he adds.

Like Nokia, once the world's largest cell phone manufacturer, Blackberry has been overtaken in an ultra-competitive sector where you have to adapt quickly, but has been trying to reinvent itself for several years.

Since 2013, the company, based south of Toronto, Ontario and formerly Research in Motion, has shifted into software manufacturing and business services - computer security and data centralization.

In the third quarter, which ended in late November, the former tech industry leader posted a net profit of $ 74 million, nearly ten times lower than its peak in 2009.

© 2022 AFP