A philosophical question: Is the BlackBerry dead?
It did die because a few days ago, on January 4, BlackBerry OS officially ceased service and died. Since TCL announced the previous year that it would no longer produce BlackBerry mobile phones, BlackBerry mobile phones have no new products launched.
It really isn't dead. American startup OnwardMobility announced in 2020 that it will partner with BlackBerry to launch An android phone with a physical full keyboard and support for 5G networks in the first half of 2021.
However, the BlackBerry is really not alive. Because throughout 2021, the BlackBerry that OnwardMobility promised has not arrived. All the company has done is silently replace the official website poster of "BlackBerry Released in 2021" after the arrival of 2022, and then publish a blog post saying that it is "not dead".
Is this 5G full keyboard BlackBerry really worth worrying about?
BlackBerry = Full Keyboard?
When it comes to BlackBerry, the impression that flashes in many people's minds must be similar. The shape may be square or rounded, and just below the screen is a trackball, or an optical navigation button, but there must be a QWERTY full keyboard.
This brings us to the origin of blackberry. BlackBerry was founded in 1984 under the original name RIM (Research In Motion). RIM's early staple products were pagers and modems, and in 1996 the first two-way pager, the Inter@ctive Pager, the RIM 900, was equipped with the QWEERTY full keyboard and began to enter the business market, writing the DNA of the full keyboard for the future BlackBerry.
The Name of the BlackBerry also comes from its full keyboard design. The keyboard on the BlackBerry device looks like a seed on a strawberry, and its body color is black, so it is called "BlackBerry".
In 1999, the RIM 6230, the originator of the BlackBerry, was introduced, which for the first time brought call functionality to the BlackBerry. QWERTY full keyboard PDA device that can make calls, BlackBerry opened its own mobile phone era with this set of absolute learning.
The 9/11 incident in 2001 caused panic in the United States and made BlackBerry famous. At that time, the network communication fell into chaos, BlackBerry equipment can timely transmit on-site information, maintain communication with the outside world, won the recognition of American political and business people, set off a BlackBerry boom. By 2005, BlackBerry had 4 million users, 200,000 of whom were U.S. government officials.
In August of the same year, BlackBerry launched BBM (BlackBerry Messenger), a pioneer in mobile-first instant messaging software that was as influential as it is today. With its own instant messaging software, easy to type full keyboard, and proficiency in telephone and mail, BlackBerry has built its own mobile empire around political and business people.
BlackBerry was so intoxicated with the full keyboard design that when the era of full touch screen arrived, it was a bit overwhelmed. In January 2007, Jobs took the first-generation iPhone to the stage. Although Apple is the first time to touch the mobile phone market, the successful experience in many fields in the past has given established manufacturers such as BlackBerry a sense of crisis.
In 2008, the BlackBerry Storm 9500 was released, abandoning the iconic full keyboard design and exploring the full touch screen. However, the BlackBerry 9500 was unfavorable, and it did not optimize the touch screen operation in a hurry, coupled with problems such as loose screens and intermittent broken contacts, the market performance was dismal.
The fiasco of the BlackBerry 9500 was later seen as a sign of the BlackBerry's turn from prosperity to decline. This doom accompanied the entire life cycle of the BlackBerry, and all attempts to "violate the ancestors" to test the water of the full touch screen were difficult to succeed. Users prefer BlackBerry phones with full keyboards.
BlackBerry 9900
Fortunately, at this time, BlackBerry's old rival Nokia also encountered a bottleneck, Android mobile phones have not yet come out, the new iPhone still needs time to complete self-proof, BlackBerry smartphones can continue to stabilize their own country, the growth momentum of the smartphone business to maintain until 2011.
BlackBerry Android phone
Food is tasteless, discarded is tasteful
With iOS and Android systems becoming the mainstream, the smartphone market changed in 2011, the former hegemon Nokia shipments were surpassed by Apple and Samsung, and the year-on-year growth rate of BlackBerry slowed down and began to decline in the second half of the year. BlackBerry's mobile empire was in turmoil, with co-founders resigning as CEO, laying off thousands of people, and the company nearly sold itself in 2013 — but eventually gave up.
In 2013, the BlackBerry Z10 / Q10 mobile phone, with multiple ticket hopping BlackBerry OS 10 system (BB10) debuted. Both the Z10 and Q10 are powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core processor with a full touchscreen and a touchscreen + full keyboard.
The following year, the BlackBerry Passport "Passport" mobile phone was released, and the square and tough full keyboard shape was sealed as a generation of classics. BlackBerry even allows users to install Android apps and BlackBerry apps themselves to save the weak app ecosystem.
But in the face of the rise of iPhones and Android phones, these efforts have not helped. In November 2013, Chinese entrepreneur Cheng Shouzong was appointed CEO, and he began the reform of the brave man's broken wrist, focusing on software and services, and outsourcing the mobile phone business to partner Foxconn. BlackBerry phones, in fact, no longer belong to BlackBerry.
In 2015, BlackBerry launched the Priv smartphone and made the final struggle. BlackBerry Priv uses a slider full keyboard form and is equipped with an Android operating system, which means that BlackBerry's own operating system is dying. But at this time, BlackBerry has been powerless to return to the sky, and the share of BlackBerry smartphones has fallen to 0.1%.
In December 2016, BlackBerry announced that it would license BlackBerry-branded mobile devices to TCL, which would design, manufacture and sell them, and BlackBerry continued its own transformation into a software service provider. TCL has not only obtained the brand license of BlackBerry, but also the license of the keyboard patent, which can make a more realistic QWERTY keyboard with enough BlackBerry flavor.
That's a lot better than the HMD Nokia of the same period. When Microsoft sold its mobile phone business from Nokia, HMD only got the right to use the Nokia brand, and some patents that were not prominent, and even got back the PureView trademark rights later. During the cooperation, TCL launched BlackBerry KEYone, KEY2, KEY2 LE and other Android mobile phones, all of which use BlackBerry's iconic full keyboard design, which is deep in the soul and full of feelings.
However, the pricing of TCL BlackBerry mobile phones is too high, such as the KEYone in 2017, which starts at 3999 yuan, and its processor is only a mid-range Snapdragon 625, so it has not caused much waves. Taking over Nokia's HMD is much smarter, first focusing on a thousand-yuan mid-range machine, expanding sales through the Chinese market, in exchange for more than two years of sweet time.
Under the dismal results, TCL's cooperation with BlackBerry came to an end. TCL announced that it will no longer manufacture, design, and sell BlackBerry phones after August 29. In addition to TCL, another blackBerry mobile phone approved to produce is the Indian company Optiemus Infracom, which has launched Android phones such as the BlackBerry Evolve series, but the sales market is limited, and there is not even a full keyboard, which naturally did not cause much impact.
BlackBerry phones seem to be infinitely close to the end.
Do we still need BlackBerrys?
Let's answer a few questions: Do we still need BlackBerrys? If so, then what do you want most, is it the BlackBerry brand of mobile phones, BlackBerry systems and services, or the physical full keyboard?
As we said at the beginning, the BlackBerry system has come to an end, and the legendary BBM is only the enterprise paid version still in operation. Apps like BlackBerry Hub+ are still being updated, but there's no reason for us to install them anymore than nostalgia and experience.
If you're missing a full keyboard, there are still phones on the market, such as the BlackBerry-like Unihertz Titan, such as the just-released Planet Astro Slide 5G, XDA's cooperation to create the F(x)tec Pro 1 X and so on. But these mobile phones are all niche products, built for people with special needs, and the market response may not be able to match the BlackBerry of the TCL era.
In the end, what we miss may only be the blackberry phone, and the past self that was accompanied by the blackberry phone. But time is always gone, and it is better to see than to miss.
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