The end of an era.
Since Tuesday, BlackBerry phones have stopped responding.
It has become impossible to call, send text messages or go on the Internet from devices that use the operating system BlackBerry 10, 7.1, released in 2013, and all earlier versions.
However, the owners of a more recent model running on Android 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 keypads and above all, a messaging system that made it possible to escape the billing of SMS sent between the brand's phones. .
A real plus when the texts were billed individually, sometimes several tens of euro cents.
The height of chic in the 2000s
Having a BlackBerry was the height of chic.
The stars, the politicians, the traders of Wall Street tapped at will on the keypad of this statutory telephone.
But the brand, ranked for a time in the world top 3 and cumulating 80 million users, did not resist the arrival on the market of Apple's iPhones, then Android phones, in particular 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 also threw 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 branded licenses by Chinese manufacturers.
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The Canadian BlackBerry tried 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 succeeding in going up the slope.
In addition, operators began to charge additional services specific to BlackBerry, while SMS billing had fallen, to go unlimited.
The rise of messaging services, including WhatsApp, has given the Canadian mobile phone the final blow.
The group finally decided in 2016 to abandon its activities in consumer mobile telephony to focus on its professional division.
