BlackBerry

The smartphone that taught executives, presidents, and teenagers to be permanently online — rendered a literal brick when its servers shut down.

† 1999 – 2022Killed by competition Died in 2022

Born

1999

Died

2022

Lifespan

23 years

Cause of Death

Killed by competition

What Happened

Research In Motion released the first BlackBerry in 1999, but the brand became iconic with the 6210 in 2003 — the first device to combine a phone, push email, and a physical QWERTY keyboard in something pocketable. For a decade, it was how executives, journalists, and politicians communicated.

At its peak in 2011, BlackBerry had 85 million subscribers. BBM became the original cross-platform messenger. President Barack Obama famously refused to give up his BlackBerry on taking office. Teenagers called it a 'CrackBerry' because they couldn't put it down.

The 2007 iPhone and the rise of Android turned BlackBerry's greatest strength — its physical keyboard — into a liability. Touchscreens, app ecosystems, and open developer platforms made the curated BlackBerry world feel like a walled garden nobody wanted to visit. RIM's response, the PlayBook tablet and BB10 OS, arrived too late and missed the mark.

On January 4, 2022, BlackBerry officially ended support for BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry 10, and BlackBerry PlayBook OS. Legacy devices stopped making calls, sending texts, or connecting to data — even over Wi-Fi. The phone that defined mobile communication for a generation was rendered, literally, a brick.

“As of this date, devices running these 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 functionality.”

— BlackBerry Support Bulletin, January 2022

Last Words — Official Shutdown Notice

“We are grateful to our many loyal customers and partners over the years and are thankful for the work and dedication of our talented employees as we move to a future focused on intelligent security software and services.”