The end of an era. Since Tuesday, BlackBerry phones are unresponsive. It has become impossible to call, send texts or go to the Internet from devices that use the BlackBerry 10, 7.1 operating system, released in 2013, and all earlier versions. However, owners of a more recent model running on Android can be reassured: their device will continue to function normally.
The Canadian brand had turned the world of mobile telephony upside down in the 2000s with these large mobile devices, equipped with comfortable keyboards and above all, a messaging system that made it possible to escape the billing of SMS sent between brand phones. . A real plus when the text messages were billed individually, sometimes several tens of euro cents.
The height of chic in the 2000s
Having a BlackBerry was then the height of chic. The stars, the politicians, the traders of Wall Street tapped at will on the keyboard of this statutory telephone. But the brand, once ranked in the world's top 3 and with 80 million users, could not resist the arrival on the market of Apple iPhones, then Android phones, notably powered by Samsung.
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BlackBerry was not the only victim of the rise of smartphones in their current version. Nokia, Alcatel, Motorola and Ericsson have also thrown in the towel. Yet these brands continue to exist. Indeed, the American Motorola was sold to Lenovo. BlackBerry, Nokia and Alcatel smartphones are now manufactured under brand license by Chinese producers.
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The Canadian BlackBerry did try to resist in the early 2010s, relaunching new devices without a keyboard, but with a touch screen, then with a keyboard and touch screen, without ever managing to recover. In addition, the operators began to charge in addition to the services specific to BlackBerry, while the billing of SMS had fallen, to pass to the unlimited.
The rise of messaging services, including WhatsApp, gave the Canadian the final blow in mobile telephony. The group finally decided in 2016 to abandon its activities in consumer mobile telephony to focus on its professional division.
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