UPDATE: A BlackBerry spokesperson has issued the following statement regarding new BlackBerry 10 devices:
“Regarding new BlackBerry 10 hardware, the company hasn’t commented on the future roadmap.”
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While our information regarding the death of BB10 stems from a reliable source, BlackBerry reached out to reiterate its commitment to the proprietary operating system, citing the recent release of BB10.3.3 as an example.
Furthermore, a representative of the company says,
TCL unveiled the latest upcoming BlackBerry smartphone at CES 2017 today and during a press briefing, BlackBerry confirmed that they have no plans to release a new smartphone running the BlackBerry 10 Operating system.
While the the company says it’s “committed to BB10,” moving forward it does not plan to release hardware running the operating system and the company’s commitment to BlackBerry 10 pertains to updating what it now considers a legacy operating system.
This news should not come as a shock to anybody that follows BlackBerry and any future BlackBerry 10 updates will be enterprise-specific.
The last three BlackBerry smartphones all run the Android operating system and the upcoming smartphone will also be running Android.
BlackBerry 10 was/is a fantastic operating system built around gestures, allowing users to swipe right and left, as well as from all four corners of the screen, while background apps are ‘pinned’ to the home screen, running slightly like widgets in the background.
Innovative as it was, by the time the software was released BlackBerry had missed the boat completely. Adoption was muted, the app ecosystem was poor as BlackBerry failed to get major developers on-board.
With the firm now shifting its attentions to the greener pastures of Android, BlackBerry 10 is now finally confirmed as a legacy operating system.
