BlackBerry ends Classic production

BlackBerry has discontinued production of its BlackBerry Classic device as stated by Ralph Pini, Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for Devices at BlackBerry in a blog:

“Sometimes it can be very tough to let go. For BlackBerry, and more importantly for our customers, the hardest part in letting go is accepting that change makes way for new and better experiences.

To keep innovating and advancing our portfolio, we are updating our smartphone lineup with state of the art devices. As part of this, and after many successful years in the market, we will no longer manufacture BlackBerry Classic. For many years, Classic (and its BBOS predecessors) has been in our portfolio. It has been an incredible workhorse device for customers, exceeding all expectations. But, the Classic has long surpassed the average lifespan for a smartphone in today’s market. We are ready for this change so we can give our customers something better – entrenched in our legacy in security and pedigree in making the most productive smartphones.

We continue to actively support BlackBerry 10 with software updates and are on track to deliver version 10.3.3 next month with a second update to follow next year.”

We can still expect o see production of other BlackBerry 10 devices like the Z10, Z30, Q10 and Passport.

This doesn’t look too good for the company, whose market share as an operating system globally was down to 0.2% in the 1st quarter of 2016 according to Gartner Inc., losing out to Android and iOS devices. Maybe BlackBerry will focus on its Android device, the BlackBerry Priv, that it started producing to try and keep up its business. The announcement to stop production of the BlackBerry Classic came just a few days after the US government had announced that it would stop giving BlackBerry to staff as standard issue.

You can still buy a BlackBerry Classic online and locally from old stock, but there will be no more.

#RIPClassic