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(CNN) -
Soon you won't be able to use that old BlackBerry phone at the bottom of your drawer.
As of Tuesday, January 4, the company will stop supporting its classic devices with BlackBerry 10, 7.1 OS and earlier.
This means that all of your older devices that don't run Android software will no longer be able to use data, send text messages, access the internet, or make calls, not even 911.
BlackBerry: what was once considered cutting edge technology
Although the majority of mobile users have abandoned BlackBerry - the latest version of its operating system was released in 2013 - the decision to stop supporting their phones represents the end of what was once considered cutting-edge technology. .
The company originally announced the news in September 2020 as part of its efforts to focus on providing security software and services to businesses and governments around the world under the name BlackBerry Limited.
BlackBerry has been largely out of the phone business since 2016, but over the years it continued to license its brand to phone makers, including TCL and more recently OnwardMobility, an Austin, Texas-based security startup, for a device. Blackberry 5G running Android software.
(BlackBerry Android devices will not be affected by the end of service.)
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Old-school BlackBerry mobile phones with physical keyboards from the late 90s and early 2000s were once so popular that people dubbed them "CrackBerries."
The keyboard appealed to professionals who wanted the flexibility of working outside the office with some of the tools they used on a desktop computer.
BlackBerry devices became a status symbol and accessory for Wall Street people, celebrities like Kim Kardashian, and even President Barack Obama, thanks in part to their great reputation for security.
At its peak, in 2012, BlackBerry had more than 80 million active users.
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Success story ... until touchscreens arrived
The company started life in 1996 as Research In Motion (RIM) with what it called bidirectional locators.
Its first device, the "Inter @ ctive Pager", allowed customers to respond to pages with a physical keyboard, a kind of hybrid between text messages and email.
Three years later, RIM introduced the BlackBerry name with the BlackBerry 850.
Over time, BlackBerry phones acquired support for email, applications, web browsing, and BBM, an encrypted text messaging platform that preceded WhatsApp and survived long after BlackBerry was overtaken by its rivals.
But Apple's touchscreen revolution with the iPhone in 2007 made BlackBerry's offering fall short.
He tried touchscreens and slide-out keyboard models, but with little success.
It developed some phones without a physical keyboard, but these lacked the key BlackBerry differentiator: its touch keyboard.
BlackBerry ended up giving up its own software, adopting Android, and overlaying its security software.
It had some success in corporate and auto security software.
Although TCL stopped manufacturing devices under the BlackBerry name in 2020, some fans are looking forward to the arrival of OnwardMobility's BlackBerry 5G device, which was originally scheduled to launch in 2021. Despite the delay, a banner continues to appear on its website that reads " coming 2021 ".
CNN Business's Dave Goldman contributed to this report.
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