You may find many people who would argue that the iconic Blackberry was ahead of its time.  It was in many ways the godfather of the entire smartphone industry. When it was initially released it was an absolute game changer.

Of course, time allowed other companies including tech giants Apple and Google to catch up and ultimately surpass what the Blackberry was capable of. It was clear quite some time ago that the sun had essentially set on the once ubiquitous device.

What you may not have known was that the Blackberry was still supported until very recently.  In fact, it wasn’t until September of 2020 that the company announced the formal end of life for the product which was set for January 4 of this year (2022).

That day has now come and gone. At this point the party is officially over for Blackberry.  All of its related services including Blackberry Messenger and Blackberry email are now gone.

There’s a short message on the company’s website announcing this fact.

It reads simply:

“As of this date (January 4, 2022), devices running these legacy services and software through either carrier or Wi-Fi connections will no longer reliably function, including for data, phone calls, SMS and 9-1-1 (emergency) functionality.”

It is truly the end of an era and Blackberry was given a Twitter send off as people around the world read the announcement of the final curtain call for the technology. Most of them were speaking in fond and wistful terms about what was a revolutionary piece of technology when it was first introduced.

Farewell Blackberry.  You were truly ahead of your time and the digital ecosystem will be a little bit dimmer without you in it.  You will be missed.